Halos or Not…

Do you know who wears a halo? Perhaps that little child who looks up with innocent eyes and says, “Who Me?” when saying they have no clue who made that mess! Or maybe that co-worker who is constantly getting the attention for attaboys when you know they don’t deserve anything but a walk out the front door!

Now… Take a good hard look at yourself. Haven’t you ever felt like your halo was slipping? Did you look at yourself differently? Did you sense the glances coming from others as your character is called into question? What do you do?

The term “halo” is used in analogy with the religious concept: a glowing circle that can be seen floating about the heads of saints in countless medieval and Renaissance paintings. The saint’s face seems bathed in heavenly light from his or her halo. Thus, by seeing that somebody was painted with a halo, the observer can tell that this must have been a good and worthy person.

In other words, the observer or artist is transferring their personal judgment from one easily observed characteristic of the person (painted with a halo) to a judgment of that person’s character. It’s their perspective and not necessarily reality. Somewhere along the way someone decided to give a set of horns to someone who’s character was as pristine.

Isn’t this sort of subjective? Your view may not equal my view! What one thinks as a positive may be viewed as a negative by another. In fact, we do this with corporations and products all the time! One false move, a misstep, one bad social post – that’s all it takes and suddenly everything about the company is called into question.

We’ve seen it recently with big named companies – Starbucks, Home Depot, Boeing… It doesn’t take much to change your perspective! One bad experience! Poof! It’s all gone.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow.
The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
Abraham Lincoln

You can polish your reputation and character till is shines, but it only takes one mistake to see it all wasted.

Here’s my thought today. You can strive to build your reputation and character till it literally shines, but make one mistake and you’ll have to build it again from the rubble.

“From that time, Jesus began to show to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go away to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised on the third day.
And having taken Him near, Peter began to rebuke Him, saying, God be gracious to You, Lord; this shall never be to You.
But turning He said to Peter, Go behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you do not think of the things of God, but the things of men.”  
Matthew 16:21-23 (LITV)

Again. Everything seems to come down to how we think and look at life as it happens, but with Peter it goes even further. He’s just been given the keys to the kingdom (Matthew 16:19), so I’m sure somewhere in his mind he thought his position more secure than it was. Then, while Jesus was hanging was preparing for the cross, Peter denied Jesus three times, just like Jesus said he would. (Matthew 26:34) He flees into the night, weeping bitterly.

But there was, and is, a way for him to restore his character and reputation. After the resurrection, and after Jesus has been seen alive, Peter and his “crew” go fishing, but they were catching nothing. Suddenly, a voice from the shore tells them to fish from the other side of the boat, and a miracle happens! The nets are full and nearly breaking! Peter recognizes what’s happening and dives overboard and races the boat to the shore. Jesus. Fire. Dinner.

But he’s not redeemed yet.

Jesus questions him three times, “Peter, do you love me?” Yes Lord! “Feed my sheep.” Peter is grieved and says, Lord you know I love you! (John 21:15-19) Peter is on the way to rebuilding his character. There’s just one more thing he needs to do. Preach the Word! (Acts 2)

There is no way to undo the wrong we make except to do what we are supposed to do. No one else can do it for you. You have to take ownership of your crooked halo and make things right. It’s in your hands to do the right thing.

What’s your reality? It’s in your hands to do what’s needed to reset the reality you felt slipping. Are you willing? Ready? Able?