I suppose everyone is reacting to the death of Michael Jackson in different ways. Some are saddened, some are irreverant in their jokes, others are upset that his death upstaged Farah Fawcett's passing, others aren't affected in any way whatsoever.
I must admit, while I respect his musical genius and incredible dance moves that I desparately wanted to imitate as a kid, (I secretly believe I never mastered the moonwalk because my family couldn't afford the smokin' awesome red parachute pants) I have been in the latter group. The one that is largely unaffected. Until this morning that is.
See, the last couple of days I've been dealing with a frustration at work. There are two areas that I'm responsible for. One of those areas is excelling, beating expectations. The other area is struggling. So much so that my boss has been having some serious conversations with me about how to fix it SOON or there could be consequences. Now when it's all said and done..the "consequences" aren't that grave, they would probably serve to benefit me, but it's a frustration that things aren't going as I would like them to.
I had to admit to my boss that I have probably taken the stance that I often take in my personal life. That is, to not spend a lot of effort getting better at weaknesses, but focus my energy on my strengths as that is where I will find success. The glaringly obvious problem with this is that we never improve our weaknesses.
Well, back to Michael Jackson. As was to be expected radio stations were filling the airwaves with his tunes. The one that struck me was his hit song, "Man In The Mirror" Some of the lyrics include:
I've been the victim of a selfish kind of love
That's why I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm askin him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change
See, this struck me so much that I turned off the radio and began to talk to God. I had been trying to figure out how to motivate the people around me to get better at the areas at work I'm responsible for. God reminded me of a book a family friend, Tom Mullins, wrote. The book is called The King's Heart and is based on the verse in Proverbs 21:1 which says "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord" and God uses these King's, authority figures, to guide us in his favor. He challenges the reader to take cues from our earthly authority figures to better understand how our relationship with The King is doing.
When Michael Jackson told me to look at the man in the mirror I realized that my troubles at work are a reflection of an area in my life that is displeasing to God. When I asked Him to show me, He showed me that I'm not placing proper emphasis on spending time with Him and in His Word. And that as a result, I'm categorizing my life. There is work, there is family and there is spiritual. He wants me to merge all of these together and give my all at work and with my family as a way to honor him.
I was in a meeting where the Hall of Fame and all time Chicago Bears leading tackler, Mike Singletary, was speaking. He was also encouraging the men in the room to step it up and be the men we are called to be in our heart, our family and our workplace.
I have always said that when we work, we aren't working for our boss or our company but for God. When we have this mentality, we will do our best to honor him. At least we should do our best. I realized today as I looked at the man in the rearview mirror that I have been guilty of not working for God. I have been looking around me at my difficulties rather than working hard. My job has an unlimited upside potential for income. I'm not hindered by a salary, I can make as much money as I am able to make. I haven't been excelling which means I've only been working for me, to pay my bills and put a little in savings for a rainy day. I'm not working for those reasons. The long term goal of my career is to have my family taken care of in a way that I can respond to ANYTHING God wants me to do without financial reasons holding me back. But, I haven't been working with the kind of fervor necessary to do this.
So...long story short, God is the ultimate glass cleaner that makes the mirror crystal clear so we can truly see the Man In The Mirror if we dare to take The King of Pop's advice and allow the King of Kings to show us what He wants us to deal with.
Do you dare look in the mirror?
