Imitate

“We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.”

 - "Radical" by David Platt

See, I like it when my religion centers around me. I like feeling important, like I'm in the middle of something. Part of me likes it when the Gospel presentation ends at, “Jesus died just for YOU, and all that you have to do is accept His gift.”

It's harder when we get to the part about being “imitators of Christ.”

Because, Jesus' life wasn't about Him at all.

It was all about the Father.

It was all about a plan to connect with the people who the Father loved.

It was all about giving up EVERYTHING.

It doesn't seem fair that Jesus would ask so much of His followers (don't bury your dead; don't love your father more than me; sell everything that you have; don't turn back), until I stop to think about what it was that He gave up. This was GOD.

He could have waited until the invention of air conditioning. But, He didn't.

He could have waited for YouTube and Blogger. But, He didn't.

He could have waited for lethal injection, or an electric chair. But, He went to the cross.

This baby, this toddler, this teenager, was GOD.

The Gospel is bigger than me because God is bigger than me. The question is, am I living that way?