One of my favorite writers
is Henri Nouwen. He was a Catholic priest that taught on many
subjects and wrote much. One of the
recent daily meditations was about being like Jesus, and I would like to share
it with you…
Very often we distance ourselves from
Jesus. We say, "What Jesus knew we cannot know, and what Jesus did
we cannot do." But Jesus never puts any distance between himself and
us. He says: "I call you friends, because I have made
known to you everything I have learnt from my Father" (John 15:15) and "In
all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I
do myself, and will perform even greater works" (John 14:12).
Indeed, we are called to know what
Jesus knew and do what Jesus did. Do we really want that, or do we prefer
to keep Jesus at arms' length?
I am intrigued by
the question and even the accusation that Nouwen shared. To answer the question is something not easy
to do, but it might change the way we see God work in our lives.
By being like Jesus
we will begin to experience the “greater works” mentioned. What is the sign of not being like Jesus is
who the work draws attention to. If it
is to ourselves or to a ministry or a church, the work is inferior and missing
the best that God has for us, but if the focus is Jesus with Him at the center,
the glory will be all to God and literally be the beginning of great
things.
So all of us
who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And
the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more
and more like him as we are
changed into his glorious image.
Did you hear or see
what Jesus called us? We are
friends. We are family. We are followers. That means we are not inferior, but we are
chosen by God to be like Jesus more and more as we seek God.
Press on and listen
in. Seeking God leads to greater works,
and that is what I desire for our church and the people I get to lead. The more we work together, the more people
who experience Jesus, literally the more we look like Jesus. That’s a good thing. Wait.
That’s a great thing because we were created for great things.
I pray that we will
look more to the future and less to the past with a smile on our face, hope in
our hearts and lives ready to serve others all the while pointing people to
Jesus. We are never more like Jesus than
we are imitating what He did and looking like Him.
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