A couple years ago, a pair of disc jockeys interviewed actor/comedian Bill Murray and the conversation turned to more serious subjects. Murray went with it. He was transparent in his response to their questions.

“What has stopped you from getting in touch with you?” one of the co-hosts asked.

“What stops us from looking at ourselves and seeing ourselves is that we’re kind of ugly, if we really, if we look really hard,” Murray replied. “We’re not who we think we are. We’re not, uh, we’re not as wonderful as we think we are.”

The hardest place to look can be in the mirror. No one else on the planet knows our faults, weaknesses, inadequacies and failures better than us. We often feel them instinctively when we begin even the slightest bit of introspection. If we’re completely honest, in each of us we see symptoms of many of the worldwide issues that trouble us.

Jealousy. Struggle for power. Prejudice. Self-centeredness. 

Introspection of this sort can quickly take us to a place of hopelessness. But it doesn’t have to. Those warts and weaknesses are your current condition, from which God is pulling you out of. He’s growing you daily into Christ’s likeness as you follow him. 

Because of God’s work in our lives, we have hope. We know what we were like before today. We know how God has already changed our lives. And we know he’ll continue changing them as we serve others and share our stories of transformation. 

Today, we can look in the mirror and have hope. Hope for what God has done. And what he is going to do.

"And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." -2 Corinthians 3:18

Deeper reflection

• How has God transformed your life in the past year?
• When is the last time you took a personal inventory of your relationship with Christ?

Next steps

• People who are being transformed for God transform the lives of others. Look for ways to change the lives of vulnerable children and families through Buckner by visiting our Volunteer Central or our mission trip calendar.
• Write down weaknesses you see in yourself. Save the list and being praying to God about those characteristics. Look at the list again in six months. What has God done in your life?