Biblia

NOT RECOGNIZING YOURSELF

NOT
RECOGNIZING YOURSELF

Topics: Reflection; Self-deception; Self-examination

References: 1 Corinthians 11:28–29; James 1:22–25

Andras Tamas had been drafted into the army, but the authorities mistook his native Hungarian language for the gibberish of a lunatic and had him committed to a psychiatric hospital in Russia. Then they forgot about him for fifty-three years.

A few years ago, a doctor began to realize what had happened and helped Tamas recover the memories of who he was and where he came from. He recently returned home to Budapest as “the last prisoner of World War II.”

This old man hadn’t seen his own face in five decades. So for hours the old man studied his face in a mirror. The deep-set eyes. The gray stubble on the chin. The furrows of the brow. It was his face, but what a startling revelation to see it after fifty-three years.

Imagine looking at your own face in a mirror and not recognizing it. James 1:22–25 says that is what people do when they listen to God’s Word but do not obey it.

—Lee Eclov, “Seeing or Just Looking,” PreachingToday.com; source: Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune (September 6, 2000)