Conclusion

There is a wonderful little poem entitled The Guy in the Glass that was written by Dale Wimbrow and first published in American Magazine in 1934. It goes as follows:

The Guy in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous,
difficult test If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

(Further details about the author and the poem can be found on www.theguyintheglass.com)

The glorious message of the gospel is that whatever your past may have been, or however many negative thoughts you may think about yourself, Jesus can change all that. He offers total forgiveness and a fresh start. He can begin changing you from the inside out so that you begin to feel OK, if not with that person you are, at least with the person you are becoming. He can develop your potential and give you a ministry to others that gives you a sense that your life is counting for something that will last. He will give you the assurance that one day his work on you will be complete and that you will know the greatest joy possible as you serve and worship him in his eternal kingdom.

I like good stories. I will finish with three of them. The first was told by Bill Young, a prison worker in Auckland, in Challenge weekly. He had met a bank robber whose father, a policeman, had tossed him a penny and told him, "This is you. You are the original bad penny and it's all you will ever be worth." Bill says:

That happened to my friend when he was 15 and after that he was in and out of every prison in New Zealand and Australia for the next 20 years. But one day he gave me the penny, which I now have mounted in my office—he told me he didn't need it any more and today that man has gone straight.

The second story is told by Ernest Jealous in his book Gold in the Morning Sun. It is the story of Ralph Webster. He was a young man, very strong and daring, with a reputation many envied. But he had lived for ill-gotten gain, enjoying the excitement of wits criminally pitted against society, law and authority. One day he stood in court as the magistrate said to him, "I have listened with much sorrow to this record of your life, and I've come to the conclusion that you are a piece of wasted humanity: you must go to prison again..."

Though he was proud of the fact that they had never managed to cow him by these repeated prison sentences, on this occasion those words "a piece of wasted humanity" burned themselves into his soul. He came out of prison in a more serious frame of mind and then he heard the message of the gospel—"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him" (1 Timothy 1:15; Hebrews 7:25). And Ralph Webster came. He prayed; he wept—and the iron door of his heart opened to the love of God, as flowers open to the sun. He knew he was waste no longer.