{"id":843,"date":"2018-11-30T15:15:59","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T19:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=843"},"modified":"2018-11-30T15:24:55","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T19:24:55","slug":"reflections-at-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=843","title":{"rendered":"Reflections at Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What do you see when you look in the mirror?<\/p>\n<p>Some time ago, I noted that Facebook gave me the option of seeing what my information looked like to a friend or a stranger. Since everything I post on Facebook is public, by my choice, there was virtually no difference.<\/p>\n<p>However, the exercise got me to thinking about what I looked like to anyone who saw me on social media. How did others see me?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-844\" src=\"http:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/adult-blur-boy-1134184.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"783\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/adult-blur-boy-1134184.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/adult-blur-boy-1134184-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/adult-blur-boy-1134184-768x418.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/adult-blur-boy-1134184-1024x557.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/adult-blur-boy-1134184-500x272.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As I scrolled through my posts, imagining how a stranger would react to what I put there, I realized that what was there wasn&#8217;t what I wanted to be there. There were cynical statements, uncaring comments, and some (just a little, because I have a brain) political rhetoric thrown in.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t who I wanted people to see me as.<\/p>\n<p>So I deleted a bunch of it.<\/p>\n<p>And then my social media presentation of myself was more to my liking.<\/p>\n<p>But, if you&#8217;re still reading, you&#8217;re probably thinking:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Well, Steve, it seems that all you did<br \/>\nwas to cover up who you really are<br \/>\nby deleting what you didn&#8217;t want others<br \/>\nto know about your heart.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yeah. That&#8217;s what I did&#8230;.. At first.<\/p>\n<p>But then I got to thinking.<\/p>\n<p>The look into the mirror that my social media accounts provided allowed me to look into my heart. And after the simple process of deleting online posts and comments, I turned my attention to the deeper process of correcting some inner attitudes &#8212; by taking them to the cross and surrendering them to the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reflection &#8212; it&#8217;s an exercise that serves us well, if we really want to grow.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This Advent, Curwensville Alliance is going to talk about Reflections beginning this Sunday (12\/2\/2018).<\/p>\n<p>Not reflections, as in looking at the past, but reflections as in <em>looking in the mirror<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll look at how this holiday season influences us and see what kinds of mindset we&#8217;ve allowed it to create. And then, by God&#8217;s grace, we&#8217;ll look to the Spirit of God to transition us from who the reflection says we are to who God wants us to be.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Join us.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Sundays&#8230;<\/em><br \/>\n<em>At 8:00 am &#8211; Traditional Worship Service<\/em><br \/>\n<em>At 10:45 am &#8211; Today&#8217;s Worship Service.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do you see when you look in the mirror? Some time ago, I noted that Facebook gave me the option of seeing what my information looked like to a friend or a stranger. Since everything I post on Facebook &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=843\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[60,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-family","tag-advent","tag-introspection","tag-mirror","tag-reflection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvLb-dB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}