Reflecting God

This beautiful picture of a mirror I got from ikea.com!

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. - 2 Corinthians 3:18  NIV

    As a son of God, there are two main things I should do - reflect the Lord's glory, and be transformed into his likeness. I'm like a mirror... sadly, an imperfect mirror. But I'm always striving to be able to reflect God better, by getting rid of the sin and imperfection in my life that gets in the way of God's reflection. Reflecting God (which includes witnessing and missions) and becoming more like God are my two main jobs, which I can only accomplish through God and with his grace and power working in my life.
    But I always forget. I'm always am putting myself first, both consciously, when I blatantly sin, and unconsciously, when I pretend to be doing things for God but my motives are more self-centred. Of course, I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13, my baptism verse), but I also cannot "bear good fruit" without Him (John 15:4). This reminds me of a great quote: "Don't try harder, trust God more!" I usually just try harder and try harder, and then get frustrated at myself when I don't achieve all my goals and don't live up to all my expectations. From now on I'll try to just trust God, and let Him transform me, because I know I can't transform myself.
    Which brings me to my final point - humility is very important. It's important because without God I'm nothing, and without humbleness I won't be able to reflect God well. I know that, but often live like it's not true - I often live like I'm number one, not God. Humbleness is not my strong point, but while I merely try to reflect God and become more like Him, hopefully I will improve in my personal humility.

Layton

Picture from www.facebook.com/JackLayton

    The NDP's temporary loss of Jack Layton has led to much contemplation and speculation. Where would the party be without him? When he eventually has to step down as their leader permanently, will the NDP even be able to survive? When will that be - within a year or not for another ten years?

    First of all, Canadians on the most part didn't vote for the NDP candidates themselves. A good example of that is Ruth Brosseau, who was obviously only elected because she was the NDP candidate in her riding. She had never been to her riding before, didn't speak her constituents' language, and was in Vegas during the election.
    So were Canadians voting for the New Democratic Party and their socialist principles, or just the guy with the cool mustache leading the party? Personally, I think Canadians wanted the man with the 'stache.  The NDP campaign was very good, and focussed almost completely on Jack Layton instead of the party itself. The ironic thing was that he got a lot of support from young Canadians, even though he's in his 60s and was even walking with the help of a cane for a while.
    Anyways, I think that when Layton steps down permanently, the party will really need to find another charismatic and likable leader if they want to maintain their current success. That's going to be a tough job. But I think it's also going to be a long way down the road.
    In the short term, the NDP should find and develop new leaders from their rookie staff, to both help Jack and prepare for his inevitable departure. They also need to start indoctrinating Layton-fans in democratic socialism, or else people may start leaving the party as quickly as they jumped on the smiling and charismatic 'stache-bandwagon.