When we look at ourselves in the mirror, what do we see? “If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave.” (James 1:23-24) In 165 AD, in the very first centuries of Christianity, a small pox epidemic swept through the Roman Empire. Historian Rodney Stark says that a quarter to a third of the entire population died from it. Marcus Aurelius speaks of caravans of carts and wagons hauling the dead from cities. Whole villages in Italy were abandoned and 5,000 people a day died in Rome. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, claimed that Christians had nothing to fear from the plague, saying, “We have begun gladly to seek martyrdom while we are learning not to fear death.” Bishop Dionysius wrote to Christians in Alexandria and said that the Christian way provided a prescription for action during this time of testing. He gave tribute to l...