Mirror to the soul

Ever counted how many times you look in the mirror each day - and why? Maybe it's to check your hair or whether you have spinach in your teeth. Maybe it's to make sure your clothes look "right". Maybe it's a glance that fills you with despair as you spot an unwanted bulge, a new grey hair or a pimple.

Our relationship with ourselves is under the microscope as a fashionable trend has developed in the US for women to go on a mirror fast (The Guardian and BBC). The idea is to go a whole month, or even a year without looking in the mirror. The offending objects are covered over with towels or banished from the bedroom and hall. The result, say enthusiasts, is that, remarkably, your self image improves! Mirror fasters report that constantly checking out your own image actually leads you to become far more critical of yourself than others. And although there are inconveniences the overall results are a greater freedom and confidence in yourself. Mirrors effectively give you greater control over your appearance, while at the same time robbing you of your confidence about how you look!

These thoughts about self image are close to our hearts at the Good Book Company, as we have just finished work on a brilliant new book, due out in October. It's a book for women looking at the whole issue of what author Sophie de Witt calls CCS: compulsive comparison syndrome. This is the disorder that lurks beneath the surface of most of our lives unnoticed. We compare ourselves to others to feel superior to them – pride. We compare ourselves to others and feel wretched and useless by comparison - despair.

The Bible's answer to this curious conundrum of our existence is typically radical. While the world looks at itself and each other to judge who they are and how they are doing, the gospel urges us to look to Christ. When we are filled with pride about our looks, achievements or abilities, we see the perfect man who outstrips us on all fronts. His life shows us how far we have fallen from what we should be. His death shows us how serious that fall is.

But to those who despair about themselves there is wonderful news. Because this perfect man was full of compassion for the sick, weak and broken. His healing touch restored health, dignity and hope. His command banished ugly spots from the faces of lepers. His words breathed hope into broken souls. He would not throw out a bruised or broken reed. He showed that God was in the business of restoring beauty - not by covering it over with slap (make up), or by dressing it up in fancy clothes. But by dealing with the heart of the problem - the ailing human heart.

And his death shows - no matter how we feel about ourselves - we are loved by the one who, in the final analysis, is the only One whose opinion matters. He loves us truly, madly and deeply. Enough to see his Only Son die in our place. The "Jesus mirror" shows us how loved we are.

A mirror fast may be a useful exercise to go through (for women and men), if it weans us away from an unhealthy obsession with our appearance, or finding our identity in our looks and what others think about us. But it's only of value if it turns us to where our true identity is to be found - in Jesus.

We are more sinful than we thought, but more loved than we ever dreamed possible.

Compared to Her will be launched at the London Womens' Convention on Saturday October 6th.