When You’re Wanting to be Like Someone Else
[bl]T[/bl]here are many people I admire. Friends, family, even people I don’t know well who I imitate and shape my life after. But there are a few that stand out. A few that I place before me and strive toward their greatness.
And I wonder if this is godly or sinful. This wanting to be like another human. This wishing my life looked more like theirs. Am I coveting? But coveting is longing for what another has. And I don’t want what they have. I want who there are. I wish their values were my values and their choices my choices. I want what they do. Because they have been bold or consistent or radical or generous in their faith.
And I realize what I really want in them is Jesus. I see Jesus in their life, in their family, in their choices and I want a little more – no, a lot more — Jesus in my life. And so I want to be like them. I want to live like them.
And isn’t that why God became man? Because he knew we needed to see him to know him. To touch him to believe in him. To witness his life in order to imitate him.
We need to see Jesus in the flesh that our own body may take on his.
And when other people are living like Jesus, it’s a present incarnation. It’s God revealing himself in the flesh again, his spirit dwelling in man again, his way of life being lived out again and again and again. Because he knows his creation must continually see him in the flesh. Because he hopes his creation will become like him in the flesh. On earth. That he may be known to the ends of it.
And just like with Jesus, a present life living out love and truth will either be rejected or embraced. Me wanting to be like Jesus living people, is me embracing the Truth. The One who lives in them. The One who lives in me.
To see Jesus living out in the lives of others brings me hope. It makes me see the possibilities. It gives me a vision for what a Christ-centered life looks like. It causes me to question my own life. In a good way, in a way we always should. It makes me reconsider choices and lifestyles and dreams. It empowers me toward more cross bearing, more serving, more community, more loving, more grace giving.
There’s nothing sinful about it. Loving and wanting the Jesus in another person is good. It’s God giving me a living picture and calling me toward greater responsibility.
It would be sinful if I saw, wanted and never changed.
#201 Michigan summers.
#202. Laughing on roller skates.
#203 The Manbos
#204 Iced lattes and homemade bread with a friend.
#205 Someone you love being with people they love.
#206 Morning jogs with my boys.
#207 Strawberries from a friend’s garden.
#208 A weekend of being home.
#209 Listening to adoption dreams of another.
#210 $1000 for Haiti
#211 $1000 for China
#212 Cousin brothers
#213 A mother who shows up at my back door with a little basket in hand.
#214 When 9 days seem too long
#215 Providing a meal for my dad, who’s always provided for me.
#216 A husband who’s the kind of dad who grafts in those who need to be nourished by our rich root.
