When I was about 4 years old, break dance was the big thing. I remember it was also called “electric shock”. If you could not do the break dance, you had not arrived. Somewhere at the back of my innocent mind, I had this unshakeable belief in my ability to execute flawless break dance. With the benefit of hindsight, I think my belief and confidence were actually unfounded.
Back then, I attended a party organised in honour of one of my cousins, who was going off to secondary school. As the break dance specialist, I had the whole dance floor to myself to make a ‘special’ presentation and I believed I did a good job. I could not therefore understand why some people were laughing at me in derision afterwards. The funny thing about dancing is that you never know how great or how awful your moves are, unless you are dancing in front of a mirror. They could see me and it was obvious to them that I was making a hash of the whole thing. If only I had a mirror on that dance floor…
That dance floor back in the days could be likened to our Christian walk. We will always have people around us who arrogate the power to judge us to themselves. They may be right or wrong in their judgement. If you want to listen to all those judges and satisfy all of them, you may find out after exerting a lot of energy and making a lot of sacrifices that you are behind your starting point. Regression instead of progress.
The mirror can never misjudge because what you see is what you get. For Christians, the Word of God has been given to us as our infallible mirror. It can never be wrong. If we can weigh all our actions on the scale of the Word, our lives will become the kind of example that Paul referred to in 1 Timothy 4: 12:
“…but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
Obviously, the Word of God can only be applied by those who know what is written therein. So, that is our own part of the deal. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly.
Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.”
This safety is only guaranteed if you do your own part by ensuring that the counsel you receive is tried on the scale of God’s word. Again, let the Word of God dwell in you richly.
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