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Forget the balanced life. Embrace your madness for Jesus.

By Jeremy Myers
26 Comments

Forget the balanced life. Embrace your madness for Jesus.

It is popular to talk about living balanced. Everywhere you turn, people are talking about the balanced life.

We need to have balanced diets, balanced budgets, balanced work life, balanced emotions, and balanced families.

I am not opposed to any of that, I suppose, but recently I have begun to wonder if our lives as followers of Jesus are supposed to balanced?

balanced lifeI suspect not.

There are a couple things that got me thinking about this.

The Unbalanced Life

The first thing that got me thinking about the unbalanced life is my own life as a follower of Jesus, especially in comparison to my wifeโ€™s life as a follower of Jesus. My wife, Wendy, is a lover and a server. I am a thinker and a reader.

For many years in our marriage, my wife felt guilty that she did not spend as much time โ€œin the Wordโ€ and reading theology as I did. I, on the other hand, always felt guilty that I did not spend enough time getting to know our neighbors, taking baked-goods over to friends, or playing with children down at the park the way my wife did.

But recently, we have both come to the realization that God made us who we are, and rather than fight who God made us to be, we must revel in it.

Wendy shines when we have people over to our house. She almost literally glows, especially when the company includes children. She is specially gifted by God to love and serve others with her whole being. She bakes, cooks, talks, serves, and loves people in a way I have never seen matched by anybody.

When there are people in our house, especially when they are young people, visible light and energy almost radiate from my wife.

I, on the other hand, can sit for hours with my nose in a pile of books, chasing down insights into various Greek words, information about the historical background of a biblical event, and ideas about how to understand a particular text.

Wendy looks at me and says, “How can you sit and study so long?” I look at her and say, “How can you love to bake and entertain children so often?”

If someone told Wendy that she needs to “be more balanced” and spend less time cooking and with children and more time reading books, she wouldn’t do so well. She likes to read, but she prefers to be with people.

If, on the other hand, someone told me that I need to “be more balanced” and spend less time thinking and studying and more time talking with others, I wouldn’t so well. I like to talk with people, play with kids, and cook the occasional … hot dog … but all the while, my mind will be on the ideas and insights that are running through my head.

Neither one of us lives “balanced” very well, and I am beginning to think that maybe we are not supposed to.

Don’t Live the Balanced Life

God made us who we are, and we need to embrace our giftings, interests, desires, and abilities, and throw caution to the wind, flinging ourselves into these full-bore, with wild abandon.

Of course, since we are married, I will be helping Wendy cook and clean and enjoying many conversations with friends and neighbors. And Wendy will be hearing some of my ideas and insights into Scripture as we discuss what is going on inside my head.

So as different as we are, we need each other, and we help each other do things that we could not do on our own.

live balanced lifeI need her to lead me in practical ways to put my ideas into practice, and she needs me to help theologically affirm and encourage her actions in loving others.

Ironically, my wife (the lover) is the one who helped me (the thinker) see and understand this. For my entire life, I have always been … how can I say it? … more comfortable in a book than in a crowd. It is not that I mind crowds; it is just that they wear me out. Quickly. Books and thinking, however, invigorate and excite me. I am an internal person. Much of my life takes place inside my head.

For a long time, I used to feel guilty about this. I used to think that a โ€œtrueโ€ follower of Jesus, an โ€œon-fireโ€ Christian, a passionate disciple, would be out volunteering at the soup-kitchen, chatting with the neighbors about tomato-growing tips, and learning the names of the children down at the local park. I used to think that a โ€œtrueโ€ follower of Jesus would go about with a spirit and attitude of prayer and grace as they spend their days washing, serving, scrubbing, praying, befriending, and talking.

That was never me. Not ever.

I tried.

As a pastor, I tried.

As a seminarian, I tried.

Having left seminary, I tried.

In my current place of work, I tried.

Part of the difficulty is that my wife was so good at all these things. Within a week of moving into a new neighborhood, she has taken fresh-baked loaves of bread and cookies to our neighbors and has had hour-long conversations with all of them, learning about their dogs, their jobs, and their children.

Me? When I talk to the neighbors, I can barely talk about anything more than the weather. I fear going to get the mail, because I am afraid I will meet a neighbor and forget their name or what we talked about last week. I dread running into a coworker at Wal-Mart because I will probably forget their name or not know what to say.

If Wendy goes to the local park, she will have a crowd of children around her in ten minutes, all of them laughing, cheering, and giggling. In a few minutes more, she will know their names. She will know their dogโ€™s names. They even ask her when she is coming back to the park. I call her a modern-day Pied Piper (but in a good way).

Me? I sometimes think I scare kids. I am pretty sure I scare their parents. Last time I tried to talk to a kid in the park, I didn’t get through half a sentence before the parents yelled out, โ€œOK, Tommy, time to go home!โ€ I am not making this up.

When Wendy stands in line at the Supermarket, people just talk to her about things. She sometimes strikes up conversations with them, but more often than not, they start conversations with her.

Me? Nobody ever starts a conversation with me. I have tried to start a conversation with others, and they usually look at me like Iโ€™m some sort of freak. I mean, who talks to strangers these days?

I discovered though, that my wife often felt guilty for not spending more time reading and studying books. She saw me doing this, and despite how easily she could talk with people and build relationships with them, she often felt that she wasnโ€™t spending enough time โ€œin the Wordโ€ or reading theology. She went to Bible college too, and she was taught (along with the rest of us) that โ€œdiscipleโ€ means โ€œstudent, pupil, learnerโ€ and so she always thought that if she was a fully-committed disciple, she needed to be studying and learning.

Recently, though she has realized (and I concur) that both of us are who God made us to be. We need to accept who God made us, and rather than fight it, revel in it.

It is like Eric Liddell saying, โ€œI believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.โ€ My wife feels Godโ€™s pleasure when she bakes for other people, plays with children, ministers to the neighbor, and laughs with friends. Me? I feel Godโ€™s pleasure when I discover something new about a certain Greek word in Luke 4:18 which I can then share with others through teaching or writing.

My wife is not me, and she shouldnโ€™t try to be me. Similarly, I am not my wife, and shouldnโ€™t try to be her. Yet we both need each other. I do the studying for her and she learns from me. She does the love and service and helps me make friends and love others in ways I could never do on my own.

This is a long and roundabout way of saying this:

Itโ€™s the same with the church.

Rather than a bunch of clones running around who all look, act, and talk like the pastor, each person is to be as fully themselves as they can possibly be. Only then does the Body of Christ develop in healthy and beautiful ways.

If we can talk about “biblical balance” it is not found so much in the lives of individual Christians, but rather in our ability to let others be who God made them to be while we seek to be who God made us to be. We must be who we are while rejoicing in who others are. I must not expect others to tirelessly read and study, and they must not expect me to be invigorated by baking a cake or listening to our neighbor talk about his dog.

What would the church be like if everybody just loved and served others, and nobody studied or learned? Well, for one thing, we wouldnโ€™t have any English translations of the Bible. In fact, we wouldnโ€™t have any Bible at all, for the work of writing and transmitting the Bible through the centuries was painstakingly carried out by committed and dedicated scholars.

But think what Christianity would be like if everybody was a scholar, and nobody loved or served? If that were the case, Christianity would have become just another philosophy and probably would not have lasted more than a century or two before it was replaced by something else.

So the truth is that we need each other. The hands-on Christians keep Christianity moving forward (usually). The heads-on Christians keep us moving in the right direction (mostly).

Where is the balance? There is no balance. Forget about balance. Don’t try to be balanced. Know you are are, and who God made you to be, and run after that with all your energy. Be the best “You” that you can be, for you cannot be anyone else, and nobody else can be “You” either.

God created you to do something, so go do it! Donโ€™t turn to the left or the right by pious-sounding talk about โ€œbalance.โ€

Find your divine spark of โ€œmadnessโ€ and fully embrace it until it turns into a raging inferno. Then people will come from miles away just to watch you burn.

The beauty of Christianity is not that we are all the same or that we are all โ€œbalanced,โ€ but instead, that we are all so dissimilar and opposite, and that in Christ, we are unified and can celebrate the differences and insanities of others rather than calling them to โ€œbecome like us.โ€

What is your particular insanity?

Did you know you are insane? Yes. And it’s a good thing. Embrace it. Enjoy it. Live it.

embrace your insanityIf you are not sure where your particular insanity lies, ask yourself what causes people to look at you and say, “Try to be more balanced”?

In this post, I have only talked about loving others (my wife) and studying books (me), but I imagine there are other passions and interests that some of you might have. What are they? How can you fling yourself into these whole-heartedly for your own personal satisfaction and ultimately for the glory of God?

Possible Ways to Live the UN-Balanced Christian Life

Here is a list of possible areas that you can pour yourself into wholeheartedly without expecting all other Christians to do the same: (Note: you might have more than one area. That’s fine!)

  • Loving your friends and neighbors (like my wife)
  • Taking care of children
  • Cooking, baking, and hospitality
  • Ministry to prostitutes
  • Lovingย the homeless
  • Servingย the elderly
  • Conservation of nature
  • Caring for animals
  • Political activism
  • Studying and Teaching Scripture
  • Learning and researching theology
  • Helping others live a healthy life
  • Financial stewardship

This, obviously, is not a comprehensive list. But as you let God make you more like the “you” that you were meant to be, He will show you your particular “insanity,” the are of special madness that nobody else can replicate because it belongs to you alone.

the balanced life

Does God want us to live a balanced life? I am not so sure. God made each of us insanely unique, so maybe He want us to reveal in our insanity.

Do you know what your madness is? Have you embraced it? Share in the comments below!

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: balanced life, Bible Study, Discipleship, following Jesus, service, spiritual gifts

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A True Foot Washing Service

By Jeremy Myers
14 Comments

A True Foot Washing Service

mental illnessI deal with men who are mentally ill on a weekly basis at my job. Recently, a young man named Daniel came into my office and said he had a message for me from God. He handed me a note, which said this:

John, as an honor, asked him how might it be that I should wash your feet. He asked, I am. Would you have your brother too, be he, whom would be left to the way? No, say I! Not thy will, but albeit, your will be done, Lord. Amen.

I thanked Daniel for the message from God. He smiled and left.

You might recognize bits of that message as coming from John 13, where Jesus sought to wash the disciplesโ€™ feet and Peter objected.

When people say that they are giving me a message from God, very rarely do I think that it is actually a message from God. But with this message from Daniel, I tend to think it was.

โ€œWhat!?โ€ You might say. โ€œItโ€™s gibberish. It doesnโ€™t make any sense! God wouldnโ€™t do that!โ€

Wouldnโ€™t He? Have you read the book of Revelation recently? … But this post isnโ€™t about bibliology, so letโ€™s move onโ€ฆ

Thinking about Foot Washing Services

I think it truly was a message from God because that very week I had been thinking about these โ€œfoot washing ceremoniesโ€ which we sometimes have in church. Can I be frank? I think theyโ€™re stupid. I think that foot washing ceremonies completely miss the point of why Jesus washed the disciplesโ€™ feet.

Jesus performed that task because it was the most menial task that a household servant could perform at that time. Youโ€™ve heard the cultural background, Iโ€™m sure. People wore sandals as they walked around in the dusty streets, which were also full of animal droppings. Nobody wanted all this tracked through their house.

Besides, they ate meals at low tables while they reclined on the ground. Which means that everybody was down near foot level. Imagine how feet must have stunk! So they had the lowest of the low household servants wash everybodyโ€™s feet as they entered the house.

To show his disciples how much He loved them, He washed their feet. That is, He became the lowest of the low servants in the house.

foot washing ceremonyDoes a modern foot washing ceremony do this? Hardly. More often than not, people who attend these foot washing ceremonies make sure that they washed their feet in advance and scraped all the gunk out of their toenails. Then they wear a clean pair of socks and shoes.

A True Foot Washing Service

If have often thought that if we really wanted to follow the spirit and symbolism of that first foot washing ceremony, we would find the dirtiest and most menial tasks in our churches, our neighborhoods, or our homes, and do those.

I have heard of pastors who pick up cigarette butts from the church parking lot, and go change diapers in the nursery. Thatโ€™s foot washing! I have heard of youth pastors who led their youth group on a missionโ€™s trip to the local outhouses near where the homeless people live and cleaned them up. Thatโ€™s foot washing! My friend, Sam Riviera, often walks around where the homeless are and picks up trash along the street. He says it is not uncommon to find used condoms and syringes. Thatโ€™s foot washing!

But let me get back to Daniel and his note. His note to me from God reminded me that washing someone elseโ€™s feet is not just about what you do, but whom you do it for. Yes, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, but remember, Judas was there too. Do you think Jesus skipped Judas as being โ€œunworthyโ€? I doubt it.

It seemed to me that Danielโ€™s note was an invitation for me to โ€œwash the feetโ€ of the mentally ill I encounter every week. How? By listening to them with patience, even when I donโ€™t understand a word they are saying. The mentally ill are often mocked, neglected, and abused by those who should love, protect, defend, and care for them. Maybe I can be a kind voice. A helping hand. A listening ear. A pat on the back.

If you donโ€™t know anyone who is mentally ill, thatโ€™s okay. There are other people whose feet you can wash. Maybe you could โ€œwash the feetโ€ of Muslim neighbors by being kind to them (without trying to convert or condemn them). Maybe you could โ€œwash the feetโ€ of homeless people by giving them a meal, even when you know they waste all their money on drugs.

There are thousands of ways to wash peopleโ€™s feet, and billions of people who need their feet washed.

Open your eyes. Look around. There is pain and fear all around, just waiting for someone to wash it away. After all, โ€œWould you have your brother too, be he, whom would be left to the way?โ€


This post is part of the October 2014 Synchroblog. Below is a list of other contributors. Go read them all!

  • Sarah Griffith Lund โ€“ Stronger Together
  • Liz Dyer โ€“ Finding the Courage to Break the Silence
  • Stacy Sergent โ€“ โ€ชNo Longer Protecting Secrets
  • Patricia Watson โ€“ Grace Amid Crazy
  • Glenn Hager โ€“ When Mental Illness Strikes Home
  • Crystal Rice โ€“ Looking Well on the Outside
  • Cara Strickland โ€“ Making Peace With My Mental Illness
  • David Hosey โ€“ The church, the psych ward, and me
  • Ona Marie โ€“ Mental Illness, Family, and Church
  • Carol Kuniholm โ€“ A Prayer for the Broken
  • Susan Herman โ€“ 3 Self Care Rituals for Managing Tough Transitions
  • Eric Atcheson โ€“ Blessed Are The Crazy
  • Joan Peacock โ€“ โ€œAlice in Wonderlandโ€, a Bipolar BookGroup Discussion Guide
  • Justin Steckbauer โ€“ Mental Illness, Awareness, and Jesus
  • Kathy Escobar โ€“ Mental Illness: 3 Sets of 3 Things
  • Leah Sophia โ€“ Mental Illness/Health Awareness
  • Josh Morgan โ€“ Peace Between Spirituality and Mental Health
  • Tara Ulrich โ€“ Breaking the Silence
  • Sarah Renfro โ€“ Blessed Are The Crazy
  • Steve Hayes โ€“ Mental illness and the Christian faith
  • Mindi Welton-Mitchell โ€“ Breaking the Silence: Disability, Mental Illness and the Church
  • Michelle Torigian โ€“ A Life of Baby Steps
  • Bec Cranford-Smith โ€“ Mental Health and the Pastor

 

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, foot washing, homeless, mental illness, mission, service

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Do mega churches do mega ministry?

By Jeremy Myers
56 Comments

Do mega churches do mega ministry?

I had an interesting conversation recently with a man who attends a local mega church. Well, the church is about 1000 people, so it’s not quite “mega” (Which I think is defined as 2,000+ in attendance). 

He was challenging my decision to follow Jesus outside the four walls of the church building, and had the usual objections: 

Him: Why would you leave Christ’s church?

Me: I didn’t leave it. I just practice church differently than you do. 

Him: But how do you use your spiritual gifts?

Me: In a multitude of ways, none of which require my butt to be in a pew on Sunday morning. 

Him: But Christians are to live in community. Where is your community?

Me: First, church attendance does not necessarily equal community, but second, I live in deep community with other people like myself who also do not sit in pews on Sunday morning. 

Anyway, the conversation went on like this for some time. At one point though, he said this: 

Him: But you could be accomplishing so much more for the Kingdom of God if you were part of a large group of people. Sure, your small community can accomplish a few small things, but imagine if you were all working together with thousands of others! Your work would be multiplied! You would see exponential growth! 

I told him it was a good point, and one that I would consider. 

multiply your ministry

I have since considered his point … and I would like your input on how you might respond to such a question. Here are my points. What can you add?

1. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed

First, I have great trouble with this mindset that only big things are worthwhile.

Jesus constantly modeled that the small things, the unimportant people, the little children, the cup of cold water, the tiny mustard seed, the one act of faith, the shameful, the foolish, and the insignificant, … these are the things that mattered to God and where God was most at work. 

Sure, Jesus performed some large-scale miracles, but it seems that as Jesus progressed in His ministry, He went smaller and smaller; not larger and larger. If Jesus had wanted to, He could have had thousands of followers at His back after 3 years of ministry. But this is not what He wanted. …So why is this what we want?

Even Jesus’ parable of the tiny mustard seed shows this. It is not uncommon to hear pastors say, “See? This church started as a tiny little group of people meeting in my living room. But now, it is thousands of people with a multi-million dollar budget. The tiny mustard seed has grown into a giant tree!” 

It sounds good, but it’s plain wrong. Yes, the tiny mustard seed grows into a large tree so that even the birds can sit in its branches, but if we ever say our particular church or ministry is “the large tree” we have completely misunderstood what Jesus was saying.

mega ministry

What grows into a large tree? The Kingdom of God does … not my little corner of it. No matter how large we become, our part in the Kingdom will always be small. 

2. Fuzzy Ministry Math

Here is often how these comparisons go: 

You and your small group did a good thing there helping that poor family in town pay their rent this month. But at our church, we raised enough money to build an entire orphanage in Africa and staff it for an entire year! 

Sure, you’re small group of six people spent $300 to help that family, but if you could have joined that money with the $250,000 raised by our church this year to build that orphanage, imagine how your investment in the Kingdom would have multiplied! 

Initially, such a comparison sounds compelling. It’s true … helping one family pay rent for one month does not sound as impressive as building and staffing an African orphanage to help rescue, feed, and teach orphans for a year. 

But if you begin to crunch the numbers, things look quite different. If 6 people raised $300 in one month to help one family, then this comes to about $50 per person per month. Who’s to say they won’t do something similar next month? And the month after that? Over the course of one year, this is about $600 per person. 

Meanwhile, if you take the $250,000 that church raised for the orphanage, and divide it between the 1000 people in the church, this comes to $250 per person. 

Obviously, I’m just making these numbers up, but this is how these ministry comparison’s are often done. The tiny little ministry a small group does for a local need is compared with some giant project that a large group does for some other (usually foreign) ministry. But if you really start to compare apples to apples, you will almost always find that the small groups are more generous. 

But what about what is accomplished? Isn’t that important? Yeah, let’s talk about that?

3. Where’s the Ministry Love?

Here is the main concern I have with big ministry projects done by big churches. Usually (but not always!), because of the large scale of the project, there is relatively little personal interaction between the “givers” and the “receivers.” 

Instead of six people helping out a family across the street, whose names are known, whose needs are obvious, and where relationships can get developed, 2,000 people give money into a giant pot to help a nameless “need” in some other part of town or across the country. Then, after administrative costs and overhead are deducted out of the money that comes in, a team of people goes out to perform the ministry to the massive group whose “need” is trying to be met. 

But because the ministry team has to meet the “need” of such a large group of people, there is very little opportunity to get to know the people. Very little relationship building is accomplished.

Sure, bellies are filled, buildings are raised, classes are taught, and books are distributed, but how many long-term relationships were built? How many names were learned? How many conversations were had? 

I sometimes think that the way some churches define ministry is not always identical to the way Jesus defines ministry. 

If you write a check for $500 to help build an orphanage in Africa … but don’t know your neighbor’s first name, what good is it? 

If you attend every mission’s conference your church hosts, but have never learned about the marital problems of your coworker, what good is it? 

If you know your Bible forward and backward and memorize 365 verses a year, but don’t know the names of the children on your street, what good is it? 

Look, everybody has different ministries and different goals, but I just get tired of having to defend small, one-on-one, loving-my-neighbor ministry to people who think that the only true ministry is one that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, involved thousands of people, and takes place on another continent. 

Ministry does not become more spiritual when it is baptized in salt water (when it takes place across the sea).

If you are not loving your neighbors right now, you cannot write a big check and call it “ministry.” 

Okay… so you can weigh in below. Have you ever encountered this “Go big or go home” mentality when it comes to ministry, and that small groups of believers would be wiser to pool their time and resources with large churches so that their ministry effectiveness can be multiplied? If so, how do you respond?

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, following Jesus, mega church, ministry, mustard seed, service, Theology of the Church

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18 Questions for Re-Imagining the Church

By Jeremy Myers
18 Comments

18 Questions for Re-Imagining the Church

imagining the church

I spent a few posts this week (Questioning the Church, Extreme Church Makeover, What if You Were God?) talking about how you and your church and figure out what God wants you to do in your community with your time, energy, and money.

Part of this process involves imagining different ways of being church, different ways of loving others, and different ways of serving our neighbors.

Some people calling this “casting vision” but in my opinion, the word “vision” is one of those overused churchy buzzwords which makes most people gag. So following the ideas presented in books by Walter Brueggemann and Greg Boyd, I invite you to imagine what the church can be and do.

Imagine new ways of being the church, living within the Kingdom of God, loving others, serving the needy, and revealing Jesus Christ to others.

Here are some great “What if” questions to move you in the right direction: (Note: So I don’t pull a Driscoll… These 18 questions for re-imagining the church originally came from a post by Kevin Bussey in 2008, but I can no longer find that post.)

What would happen if…

  • Followers of Jesus concentrated on sharing their faith with a lost and dying world?
  • Followers of Jesus prayed for the church across the street?
  • Churches didnโ€™t see other churches as competition but as allies?
  • Churches rejoiced when another church is thriving?
  • We realized our view might be wrong?
  • Their church is just as important to God as yours?
  • We recognized God likes variety?
  • Followers of Jesus didnโ€™t shoot their wounded?
  • We acted like Grace really is amazing?
  • We give Grace beyond the point of conversion?
  • We realized God likes worshipโ€“no matter what the style is?
  • Churches in a community partnered with each other to reach the lost and hurting people that God has given to them?
  • Churches didnโ€™t criticize other churches?
  • Followers of Jesus didnโ€™t nit-pick other believers, churches or ministries?
  • Followers of Jesus became part of the solution rather than being the problem?
  • We really prayedโ€ฆ?
  • Followers of Jesus could put aside differences in order to minister to a dying world?
  • Followers of Jesus really became one?

Do you have any questions to add to this list? Include them in the comments below? How do you and your church seek to find new ways to share the love of Jesus with others?

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: being the church, church, loving others, ministry, mission, missional, service, Theology of the Church

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Thank God for Models for Christ

By Jeremy Myers
5 Comments

Thank God for Models for Christ

As people around the country stop to sit down with friends and family and a bunch of other strangers while we wait in line for the doors to open at Best Buy, it is good to remember all that we are thankful for.

One of the things I am thankful for is “Models for Christ.” They do such a good job representing Jesus. (Read that statement with sarcasm.)

I was listening to the radio and heard about how a group of volunteers gathered in New York to serve a Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless. The radio show host was there as well, and he said that the food was hot and ready to serve, the homeless were all lined up ready to eat, when all of a sudden, the whole event had to stop so that local newspaper and magazine publishers could take pictures of some “Models for Christ” serving food to the homeless.

models for christ on thanksgivingThe radio show host said that though he had been there all morning helping to prepare the food and the auditorium for feeding the homeless, he hadn’t seen any of the “Models for Christ” do any work earlier. During the picture shoot, all they did was smile, post, and hold paper plates full of food that someone else had prepared. Then, when the photo shoot was over, all the “Models for Christ” left… without serving a single plate to a single homeless person.

The real volunteers, who had been there all morning cooking and preparing, were the ones who served all the food, sat and talked with the homeless people, and stayed around afterward to clean up. Of course, nobody took any pictures of them for the newspaper or local magazines.

The radio show host said, “I am not saying thatย all ‘Models for Christ’ act like this, but it just seemed so rude and arrogant, to show up just when the food was about to get served, and then stall the whole event while some fake pictures are taken, and then leave without actually serving any food.”

I don’t think anybody was fooled that day, except for maybe the Models for Christ. Though they bore His name, they did not bear His image. Though they may have been “Models for Christ” they were not models of Christ.

I suppose we shouldn’t blame them. Their schedule was probably pretty tight. They probably had some guest appearances on Television shows, a photo-op with the Mayor, and then they had to get home to their glittering mansion and perfect family to eat a catered Thanksgiving meal.

Ok, ok. I’m getting a little worked up now.

Look, one of the constant themes on this blog is that if you are going to bear the name Christian, please, please, please, try to actually look like Jesus.ย Please try to model Christ to others, who had no beauty that we should desire Him, no riches and wealth that we should seek His favor, and no form or comeliness which attracted people to Him (cf. Isaiah 53:1-3).

But people were drawn to Jesus because He was full of grace and truth, love and mercy, hope and forgiveness, generosity and joy.

If we are truly models of Christ, this is how we too can live.

PS, No, I am not in line at Best Buy. My wife and I pretty much boycott the entire “Black Friday” shopping frenzy… not because we think it’s wrong… we just dislike crowds and stores.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, looks like Jesus, service, thanksgiving

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Theological Study Archives

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