The Best Qualified

“As in water face [answereth] to face, so the heart of man to man.” (Pr 27:19 AV)

There is one piece of information missing that causes confusion among our great authors.  Water acts as a mirror.  The man looks into the mirror of water to see his face.  He sees what he likes, or he fixes what he doesn’t.  More times than not, he looks at his reflection as an act of self-evaluation.  He is looking for flaws that can be corrected.  What is missing is the water, or means of reflection when the heart answers to man.  Is it another man?  Does another examine our hearts to reveal what lies within?  That is the most common understanding.  Or is it the man who reflects inward to discover the condition of his own heart?  That is the less favored understanding.  However, that is where I lean.  I believe a man examines himself in the water to discover flaws, and the same man reflects inward to discover his own heart.  The truth to be gleaned here is that the best authority outside of God regarding the condition of one’s own heart is Self.  What Solomon may be intimating is as common as examining our outward reflection in the mirror for correction, the same should be equally common in examining one’s inward health.

Every morning I get up and get myself ready.  A shower is the first thing.  I cannot function without a morning shower.  Before breakfast, before I take the dog out, before I do anything, I have to wake up in the shower.  Brushing my teeth is part of that routine.  Then I have to set my hair.  I have impossible hair.  It is finely stranded hair but a thick mat of it.  This means it likes to stand straight up and will not lay down.  After 59-years, I finally found the magic sauce.  Beard conditioner!  My shampoo and conditioner are super moisturizing blends.  But it is the beard conditioner that makes all the difference.  I prayed and fasted for this solution for decades.  And there it was, all along.  So, after I dry off, I stand in front of the mirror.  I apply two and a half squirts in the palm of my hand, rub my hands together, then apply to my hair.  I run my hands and fingers through my wet hair until all the conditioner is applied.  Then, I take beard oil on with a comb, apply that to my beard.  Without rinsing or wiping, I run the comb through my hair.  I have a part to one side and the larger hair I have to protrude a bit off my forehead.  But then it is set!  I let it air dry from there.  I do this every morning.  Unless I am deathly ill, that is my routine.  Then I sit on the edge of the bed and take my blood pressure three times.  I enter that data into my phone so my doctor can gaze.  I get dressed, take the dog out, brew coffee, and sit back to do my devotions.  But my day starts with self-examination in a mirror.  Everything has to be in order before I go downstairs to greet my wife and my dog.

This is what Solomon is trying to convey.  As natural as it is to examine oneself in the mirror, we are to examine our hearts.  As natural as it is to seek out flaws and fix them, we should seek out heart issues so that we can address them.  Although I can go to a barber and he can fix my hair, he has to learn how my hair lays.  I don’t.  I know it better than anyone.  So, too, is my heart.  I know it better than anyone.  Everyone else sees the heart I want them to see.  Only God and I know it as intimately as it can be known.  Therefore, alongside my routine to trim hair, shave, or set my hair every morning, there must be a time I reflect on the condition of my heart.  It is something I can do better for myself than relying on others to do.  As naturally as it is to examine the flaws in my physique, I should be equally disciplined to examine the flaws in my character or inner self.