Before the Mirror of Erised--February 21, 2022

Before the Mirror of Erised--February 21, 2022

"You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures." [James 4:2b-3]

We're not used to asking the question, "But why do you want this?" over any of our wants in life, are we?  Maybe it's time we did.

There was a beautiful bit of storytelling in the first of the Harry Potter novels, where we are introduced to a plot device called "the Mirror of Erised."  When one looks into the mirror, one sees what one most deeply desires (right, so you probably noticed that "Erised" is just "desire" backwards, but this is a children's book, so it's allowed to be a little on-the-nose).  Anyway, the mirror ends up being a sort of test, or safeguard, to prevent nefarious wizards from stealing the legendary "sorcerer's stone"/"philosopher's stone" which it hides, exactly because of what it shows you.  

Here's how the set-up worked in the story. If you were wanting the stone as a means to a selfish end--say, to outlive your enemies, or to make a fortune in gold--the mirror would only show you that fantasy, not the stone itself, which was just a step along the way in your scheme.  But someone who only wanted to restore the stone to its rightful keeper and prevent it from being stolen by a certain Dark Wizard (who shall not be named) would see exactly where it was, and could hold it in their hands to retrieve it.  In other words, it wasn't enough to want the stone--it was about wanting to possess it for the right reason.

And like I say, that whole concept--of there being "good" and "bad" reasons for having something--is rather foreign to our ears.  We are so much more used to thinking we are entitled to want whatever we want, and there isn't really any more thought put into it. We live in a culture where "because I want it" is reason enough to pursue a thing, scheme to get it, or envy someone who does have it.  And we have a harder time hearing James suggest that sometimes we aren't given the things we are sure we want... because we want them for the wrong reasons, or with the wrong motivations, or with a selfish bent in our hearts.

James, in other words, was doing the Mirror of Erised trick before it was cool--in fact, millennia before it was first dreamed up for a children's novel. James forces us to ask, "What do we really want it for?" over everything we find ourselves desiring.  You'll recall that in the previous verses, James called us out for the attitude of endless wanting that leads us to justify taking from others. And here the train of thought picks up, as James says, "You who are so focused on getting some particular thing--instead of trying to take it from someone else, ask God for it!  And if the answer is "no," maybe that says something about why you want it, and maybe God knows it wouldn't be good for you to have.

In a culture like ours that offers to super-size our fast-food order, or will bombard us with endless ads for things we are "supposed" to want, it's hard hearing James tell us we aren't entitled to have something just because we want it.  But we need him to remind us--at least I know I do--that having more stuff for my own gratification isn't a worthy life goal, honestly.  If my reason for having something is just to have it, as a status symbol or for the sake of my own greed, then it's actually not healthy for me to be given it.

But on the other hand, if the reason for having something is that it allows us to use it in some way that helps others or to love someone else or to care for the world God made, well, then we are tapping into its full potential--and ours.  If I want a bigger house just so I can look down on my neighbors who have less, or so I can wallow in my own opulence, I doubt that's a goal God can get behind.  But if having a house with a spare room allows me to use it to welcome relatives from out of town, or the foreign-exchange student who needs a place to stay, or to welcome foster kids, or to offer safety to a newly settled refugee, well, that changes things.  If I want a more expensive car just to be a status symbol, that somehow rings hollow and empty; but if I need a safer car that costs more, or a car that's more expensive because it burns less fuel, maybe it's a good choice.  James isn't here to insist that he needs to approve every purchase you want to make or every goal you want to pursue in life, and neither am I.  But he does insist that we have to ask the question that rarely ever even dawns on us: "Why do I really want this... and is it actually good, for me and for others, if I have it?"

I have a hunch that asking that question over all of our lives will change us.  It will affect the things we buy on impulse with the click of a button from our favorite online retailers.  It will lead us to think about whether we want something because we actually need it, or whether it's because it's trendy at the moment.  It will lead us to appreciate what we have, rather than always wanting more, newer, bigger, shinier, or costlier models.  And it will probably lead us to take care of what we have--repairing and mending rather than pitching and buying new--more than we were used to.  And I have a hunch that all of those things will make us more content in our souls than we are in our endless fever of affluenza, constantly seeking more and more, while feeling less and less satisfied with what we have.

Today, if you're feeling magical about it, imagine you are starting the day standing before the Mirror of Erised--what will it show you that you really want, and is it a noble thing to want in the first place?  Or, to be a little less fanciful, what is worth wanting, and what things that we've been told to want just aren't important after all?  James offers us an unexpected freedom in leading us to ask a question like that.  What will it look like for us today to live in that freedom?

Lord God, help us to see ourselves and our wants with honesty and clarity--and shape our desires in the heat of your love.