Yesterday in church we sang a song that I don't necessarily agree with all of the words. Or well maybe I should say, I don't know if it truly is the desire of our heart.
In English it says this:
I want to be like you
My desire is to live like you
With all of my soul, my desire Lord
is to live like you.
My friend Carlos, spoke at our student retreat last weekend. He taught on God being Lord in our lives. One of the questions he asked us was to name a character of the Bible that we wanted our life to look like. It was a trick question but here were some of the responses.
Paul and Carlos responded with asking the student if they wanted to be beaten, flogged, incarcerated and imprisoned?
Another student said Esther. Carlos spoke on the frankness of Esther's life. Orphaned, plucked from her village, forced to participate in a year long beauty competition, won the favor of the King and was only called upon when the King wanted her and on top of all of that, had to risk her life to save her people.
We could continue this game with tons of people talked about in the Bible. Moses (I don't want that kind of responsibility and then never see the promised land), Mary-the mother of Jesus (try explaining to your parents these days that you are a pregnant virgin), Peter, or anyone else.
But I was thinking about the song yesterday. Do I really want to live like Jesus lived? Homeless? Vagabond? Despised by his hometown? Am I really going to shout out in church...Lord, let me be homeless! No, absolutely not. I don't want to live like Jesus but I want my character to reflect it and maybe it is the kind of thing where God decides to take away some cool things in my life to make me resemble him more.
Ultimately, we as Believers are following a God and reading a book that says: "to follow me and to be like me, it isn't going to be a cake walk". And how quickly I forget that. I just want it to be easy. But character transformation does not come when I am comfortable. That is for sure.
2 comments:
Emily, I love your post. Very challenged. Even the past few weeks I have been called many times to respond in a way that before we were walking through this valley I might have responded differently due to the easiness of a response but now I am convicted to put God's truth above my own pride in a very public way. Thanks for the encouragment tonight through your words. Love, J
love you Jess. Praying for your valley. I always think that fruit cannot grow on the mountain...it grows in the valley. And God is going to grow a ton of fruit in you and Corey during this time.
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