The Mirror They Carry: Why Your Light Exposes Their Darkness
The lights went out suddenly. Again. Eskom se dinges, we muttered in the dark of our Akasia home, the familiar frustration rising. My phone screen glowed, a tiny square of light in the swallowed room. Scrolling, I saw not updates, but accusations. A pastor denounced for prosperity. A public figure torn apart for an old tweet. A neighbour’s WhatsApp group alight with venom over a boundary wall. In that load-shedding blackout, I saw a deeper darkness: our furious human habit of projecting our own inner chaos onto the nearest available screen—another person’s life.
They hated Joseph because of his dream. Read it slowly: “They hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.” The offence was not his action, but his vision. His clarity became their indictment. His light did not create their darkness; it revealed it. And what is revealed, is often reviled.
Here is the practical, paradoxical law you must etch on your spirit: The strength of a man’s reaction to you is often the measure of the storm he is refusing to weather within himself.
People do not see you. They see the mirror you unwittingly hold up to them. When you walk in purpose (your “dream”), you become a living reflector. The brother seething with secret lethargy sees your discipline as arrogance. The colleague nursing a hidden insecurity sees your confidence as a threat. The crowd living in compromise sees your conviction as judgment. They are not throwing stones at you; they are throwing stones at their own reflection, and you happen to be the glass.
Let us define our terms with philosophical precision, as the old theologians in their studies did. Projection is the soul’s desperate defense mechanism. It is the violent, external export of an internal civil war. An emotion, a flaw, a fear too painful to own is disowned, fired like a psychic dart, and stuck onto the chest of another. Your dream becomes the screen for their movie of inadequacy. Your peace becomes the canvas for their portrait of rage.
In our South African moment, we see this everywhere. We project our historical trauma onto every political debate. We project our economic anxiety onto the immigrant on the corner. We project our moral confusion onto the preacher trying to hold a line. Social media is not a networking platform; it is a global projection gallery, a million hallways of shouting mirrors. We type furiously, not at the person on the screen, but at the version of ourselves we see in them and cannot bear.
A common objection arises: “But what if I am actually arrogant? What if the criticism is valid?” This is wise. Therefore, the first step is always the mirror of God’s Word. Kneel before Scripture. Let Psalm 139 search you. But hear this: There is a vast difference between the surgical conviction of the Holy Spirit and the violent projection of a wounded spirit. One is specific, humbling, and leads to life. The other is vague, shaming, and seeks your diminishment. One feels like a surgeon’s scalpel; the other feels like a mugger’s knife.
So, what is the actionable law? Your task is not to absorb their distortion, but to remain clear and true.
You must become, by the grace of Christ, non-porous to projections. Imagine a modern-day Joseph in the corporate world, gifted, favoured, visionary. The whispers start: “He’s the boss’s favourite. Who does he think he is?” His law is this: I will not let their interpretation of my journey derail my obedience to my calling. His prayer is not “God, make them like me,” but “Father, anchor me in You.”
This is where we move from theory to trench warfare. How?
1. Diagnose the Dart. When a reaction seems disproportionate, pause. Ask the Holy Spirit: “Is this Yours? Or is this theirs?” Do not own what is not yours to carry. That dart is dipped in their poison, meant for their healing, thrown at you in error.
2. Return to the Source Mirror. You cannot see yourself clearly in the shattered mirrors of human opinion. You can only see your true shape in the perfect mirror of God’s Word and God’s Son. Jesus Christ is the flawless image. In Him, you are neither demon nor deity; you are a beloved child in process. Look at Him until your reflection settles.
3. Answer with a Different Spirit. The flesh screams to counter-project. To say, “You’re just jealous!” That simply adds another mirror to the hall of war. The Spirit of Christ models a revolutionary response: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” From the Cross, the Ultimate Dreamer looked upon His projectors and saw not enemies, but the enslaved. He absorbed the sin, but He did not internalize the lie.
This is the costly discipleship. To look at the brother hurling insults and think, “The storm inside him must be terrifying.” To look at the critic and pray, “Lord, meet them in the cave of their fear that I remind them of.” This is not weakness; it is warrior-level spiritual discernment. It is winning a higher war by refusing to fight on the lower battlefield.
Your clarity is your charity. By refusing to be blurred by their projections, you offer them a rare gift: a stable, true surface. Eventually, by God’s mercy, they might stop breaking mirrors and start looking into one. The world is not a hall of fame; it is a hall of mirrors. And as for you, child of God? You are not just a mirror they carry. You are a mirror He carries—crafted to reflect, however imperfectly, the glorious face of Christ. Let the projectors rage. Let the lights go out. Your power is not subject to Eskom’s schedule. You are connected to the Grid that lit the first day. So shine.
Prayer: Almighty God, my True Mirror. Anchor my soul so firmly in Your verdict of me that every other voice becomes an echo. Give me the discernment to separate conviction from projection, and the compassion to pray for those fighting shadows I remind them of. Let me be so clear on who I am in Christ, that I become unshakeably kind. In the name of the One who was hated for His dream, yet saved the dreamers. Amen.
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