Same kind of life

As I mentioned before, authenticity is a core value of mine, so a story that Donald Miller tells in Blue Like Jazz deeply resonates with me.

At Reed College there was barely a handful of individuals who identified themselves as followers of Jesus. During the annual all-about-partying Ren Fayre festival, these few decided to set up a confessional booth. But rather than accept confessions from their 'partying' peers, Tony the Beat Poet suggests an idea with a twist:

"We are not actually going to accept confessions…We are going to confess to them. We are going to confess that, as followers of Jesus, we have not been very loving; we have been bitter, and for that we are sorry. We will apologize for the Crusades, we will apologize for televangelists, we will apologize for neglecting the poor and the lonely, we will ask them to forgive us, and we will tell them that in our selfishness, we have misrepresented Jesus on this campus. We will tell people who come into the booth that Jesus loves them." P 118

So Donald is the one in the booth to accept the first customer. He confesses --

"Jesus said to feed the poor and to heal the sick. I have never done very much about that. Jesus said to love those who persecute me. I tend to lash out, especially if I feel threatened, you know, if my ego gets threatened. Jesus did not mix His spirituality with politics. I grew up doing that. It got in the way of the central message of Christ. I know that was wrong, and I know that a lot of people will not listen to the words of Christ because people like me, who know Him, carry our own agendas into the conversation rather than just relaying the message Christ wanted to get across. There's a lot more, you know." p 123
There is good reason these words resonate; they are true of me. What I really want, and what I believe will bring me into wholeness and abundant life, is to walk and live and love like Jesus. For anyone reading, of whom I've not loved like Jesus loves, may you know I am sorry.

"Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived." I John 2:6 TM