Devotional in Song MAN IN THE MIRROR

Every now and then, a song steps out ordinary and speaks with a kind of prophetic urgency — and Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror is one of those rare moments. In my opinion, it is the greatest secular song ever recorded. And part of that power is wrapped up in Jackson himself. Anyone else might have made it sound sentimental or saccharine, but somehow, with that fragile fire in his voice, he lifted it beyond cliché. It should not have worked. But in his hands — it did. It became a plea, a confession, a sermon, and a cry for redemption, all pressed into four minutes of music.

Because at its heart, the song isn’t about the world “out there.” It’s about the person staring back at you when the bathroom light flickers on. It is the uncomfortable realization that the change we want, the change we pray for, the change we ache to see — begins with the man or woman in the mirror. That’s not just good psychology; that’s good theology. Scripture calls it repentance. Jesus calls it taking the beam out of our own eye. Paul calls it the renewing of the mind. Michael Jackson called it “starting with the man in the mirror.” And somehow he made the truth sing.

But hear this: the mirror is never kind on its own. It shows us flaws without healing them, failures without forgiving them. A mirror can reveal, but it cannot redeem. You can look into it for a lifetime and never gain the power to change — unless Christ steps into the room. Because only Christ can take the hard truth the mirror exposes and transform it into new creation. Only Christ can take the guilt we hide behind the glass and wash it clean. Only Christ can turn a moment of painful honesty into a lifetime of holy growth. In that sense, the song points upward even when it doesn’t say His name. It is a secular confession that echoes a sacred truth: if change is going to come, it must start inside — and only God can rebuild the inside.

The beauty of the song is its longing. Jackson sings with a man’s hunger to be better, kinder, purer — to make a dent in the world’s darkness by first letting the light pierce his own heart. And every Christian knows that feeling. It is the Spirit’s whisper behind the soul’s craving: Start with yourself. Start with your heart. Start with the mirror — and let Christ change the reflection. Because once He changes the man in the mirror, He changes the world through that man.

So yes — the song should have been inauthentic. It should have collapsed under the weight of its own earnestness. But instead, it rises. And we rise with it. Because whether Michael meant it or not, the truth remains: real transformation begins when you get honest before God, look into the mirror, and let Jesus make you new.

BDD