I share this story with fear and trembling. It could cause my friends and family to stage an intervention to determine if I should be allowed out in the world by myself. Loyal readers could decide I’m not smart enough to follow. But I’m going to write it and share it, because I think there’s a lesson in it—plus, I think it’s funny.

I like a rearview mirror

The side mirrors on my Ford Transit RV are all I need to drive safely. I’ve tested it, and scores of people have testified to it. But I’m used to having a rearview mirror in the middle that allows me to see what’s directly behind me. It makes me feel more secure when I have to change lanes in places like Dallas and Atlanta.

My RV came with one of those mirrors, but my whole house lies between the driver’s seat and the back window. Twenty feet of space and a whole lot of stuff make that mirror less than effective.

That’s why I bought a fancy contraption that looks like a rear view mirror, is in the traditional place of a rearview mirror, but is hooked up to a camera on the back of my van. It comforts me with the illusion that I’m looking out my rear window. I’d heard great things about it, so I spent the money to buy it and have it installed.

Now we see through a glass darkly

Boy, was I disappointed. When I set the camera on forward facing, the picture was perfectly clear. But when I switched to the view behind me, all I got was a vague impression of blurry movement with a blue aura. It was useless in traffic.

I decided I’d just gotten a bad bargain. I wondered how people could have recommended it. I wrote it off as a mistake, and learned to rely on my side mirrors.

Every once in a while, I looked in the mirror and wondered if the problem was user error (me). Many of my difficulties in life are. I’d be in traffic, and I’d think, “I ought to get on a ladder and see if the camera needs to be adjusted or if something is blocking it.” But I’m easily distracted, and would forget about it by the time I was stationary. This went on for over a year.

This week, something amazing happened. I glanced at the mirror and caught a tiny glimpse of a clear view of the street behind me.

That’s when I remembered the blue film that sometimes covers the lens on a new device. And I wondered. Was there such a film on my camera? Was this streak of clarity a place where time and weather had worn away at the film?

As soon as I got to my destination, I asked to borrow a ladder. It was raining, but I had a solution in sight, and I didn’t want to forget this time. I climbed up to the camera, and I cleaned the lens.

The result? You guessed it. Clarity.

I can’t wait to get back out on the road and use my cleared rearview mirror. But my excitement is a little tainted. I had a useful and valuable tool at my disposal for over a year. I decided it was trash, and made do without it, because It wasn’t working for me. The solution was ludicrously simple. But I never stepped up on a ladder to investigate.

God’s Word: Faulty or Useful?

You don’t need me to make the point for you here. You’ve gotten to it in a much shorter time than it took me to discover that tiny piece of blue plastic. But let’s go ahead and see this to the end. Two passages come to mind—one of them even has a mirror in it.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17 (ESV)

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

JAMES 1:22-25 (ESV)

All Scripture is profitable. God wastes nothing. If a word of Scripture seems odd, inscrutable, or irrelevant, I might need to persevere to find what is blocking my understanding of what God intended when he included it in his Word. If God’s Word isn’t growing and equipping me, maybe it’s not the mirror that’s faulty, but the blue plastic of my presuppositions, worldly perspective, or reluctance to be changed that is the problem.

Come Alongside

I’m wrestling with something like this in Scripture right now. I’m diving into the historical and scriptural context of some verses that trouble me. Scholars I respect differ from each other in how they interpret them, and the teaching has an impact on how I do life. I don’t want to stay close to a tradition that may turn out to be blue plastic. I also don’t want to reject a truth just because it goes against my blue plastic desires or is inconvenient. I want to cling to God’s Word and walk in his ways. I want to see clearly and obey.

What about you? Do you need to check for blue plastic blocking the mirror of God’s Word you’ve been looking into? Is there profit from Scripture you’re missing because your understanding of it is blurred? Persevere my friend.

Read. Study. Pray. God’s Word is accessible. It’s always consistent with His nature and His ways. The Holy Spirit is within you to guide and illuminate.

As always, I’d love to hear your insights, questions, or even arguments on this. Has God removed some blue plastic for you? Are you struggling with some right now? Please post in the comments or message me. Let’s grow in this together.

Traveling in Grace,

Christi