Imitate Me

I was challenged with a thought at the Learning Community that I have been reflecting on recently.
This is the idea: "Call people to imitate our lives, just as Jesus calls us to imitate him."

So, in reality, if we are living a lifestyle like Jesus', we have a life worth imitating.

But, how many of us have the confidence that our life is worth replicating? When we look at ourselves, we often see ALL the ways we don't measure up, rather than the amazing reality that the God who Created us also lives in us, continually molding us into a greater likeness of himself.

So, I've been thinking about me.
When people see me, they see my strength, my determination, my perseverance, my love for people and fun, and my passion for Jesus.

But, they also see someone who has worked so hard for so long. They see that a life of ministry is exhausting and they don't think that it is for them.

A few months ago, I began to tell Jesus, "I can't work any harder. You have to show me a better way."

And, guess what.
It's right there, in the Bible, in John 15.
Jesus tells his followers, including me, that we are to balance work with rest--he calls it abiding with him. The rest can be anything that rejuvenates us: it doesn't have to be us on our knees in prayer for hours at a time.

If we love hiking, we should hike. It will open up our pathway to God, maybe a pathway that has been clogged for a long time.
If we love parties, we should have parties.
If we love animals, we should spend time with them.
Whatever brings life to us brings abiding.

So, for me, some of my most lifegiving moments are when I am reading, reflecting, writing, and dreaming about the future--especially outside in the beauty of the Northwest. When I do these simple things: I feel ALIVE!

And, that life in me is contagious, it spills out onto others. They notice and they want it too!

So, that's the invitation to imitate me.
Find those lifegiving things in your life; engage them as you engage your Creator, and then let the overflow motivate someone else to imitate you, as you imitate Jesus.

I do abide daily, weekly and monthly, but I have never had a season of abiding!
I am taking the month of July to do the things I mentioned above; and I am beginning to realize that they will probably produce much more fruit, outcome, than all the other months combined. Because fruit comes from a place of rest because the conditions for growth are right: sunlight, fertilizer, water!

This summer, Missio Lux is going to abide.
We are making room for R and R: Relationship and Rest.

More on that next time.