Daring To Be More Like Jesus

Do you ever daydream? I have to let you in on a little something about which I love to daydream! I love to sit and read about the life of Jesus, and think about all of the people in His tribe. I imagine what each of the 12 men were like, as they followed him and learned more about the mysteries of God. I envision those insanely brave men and women that contributed to his ministries.

I imagine the talking and the arguments. I wonder what the long walks from town to town were like. I try to guess their hair color and what they had on. What did they feel when they saw the miracles? What did they think when Jesus told parables? Did they ever want to run away or was Jesus so enchanting and comforting that His presence was worth all of the gold one could have.

I even think about my own tribe and who would be the ones that would be following Jesus, if He were here today walking around teaching my community about Christ.

Who would be our modern version of Mary Magdalene? Or Lazarus's sister Mary? (link to "I wanna be a Mary" blog) Or Judas? Or Paul?

Who would give up their world and families to follow Him? And preach His word?

Who would risk their life for Him?

Who would persecute Him?

Would our churches today embrace Him?

Would our table be flipped over by Him?

As I daydream about the scenario, one thing keeps coming back to my thoughts... what a brave soul He was. He was crazy daring to walk this earth with us. Y'all, we stink. We are hateful humans. We do terrible things even on a good day! 

I mean, let's face it. Most days, I look around at this world and the people in it (including myself), and can't wait to go Home! Can you imagine how done with us He had to have been?  And let's remember that when He was here, He wasn't just thinking about the people on earth for those 33 years.  He was thinking about the millions before them and the billions that came after!  

And He never was just done with our nonsense. He walked around in our nasty shoes. He endured our darkness. He was tortured and killed BY us. FOR us. A perfect being ridiculed by a bunch of dumb dumbs. Hypocritical dumb dumbs.

"Oh, but wait, Jesus, we want to go to heaven too! My bad... I didn't mean to hang you on a tree."

And that's the thing. When I look at my tribe and try to guess who is whom, the truth is that we are all of those people. I threw stones and then blindly followed him. I washed his feet and then beat him. I preached His Word and then hung him on a tree. I did. And I still do. And so do you.

Every time I tell a white lie.

Every time I break a commitment.

Every I chose something in place of Him... social media, Netflix, friends, family, our job.

Ugh... I kinda get woozy thinking about all of the "stones" I've thrown at Him.

We fall every single day. And ya know what? Jesus knows this. God knows this. Yet they dared to save us anyway. They dared to make our broken lives more beautiful. They dared to walk this earth for us and with us. 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

I want to dare to be more like Jesus. 

Daring love. 

Daring patience. 

Daring empathy. 

Daring humility. 

Daring sacrifice.

Daring grace.

I want to dare to see things differently. And I think you do too!! Our BB post about being more like Jesus reached a record number of peeps! So I know you feel the same way! Will you join me on this brave journey? I'm pretty sure I'll stumble, but I'm 100% sure I'll enjoy the ride and be blessed through the journey!