What Should We Be? Be Jesus
What Not To Be…
We live in a time where we are barraged by the constant demand to “Don’t Be…!” You hear from everywhere, the news, social media, even from the pulpit. You hear it from everyone, friends, family, influencers, and social justice warriors. It’s a message as old as time itself and it’s not going away anytime soon.
We’re being told not to be so many things that it’s hard to keep track of it all and the list just keeps getting longer and longer.
Don’t be:
a racist!
a bigot!
a snowflake!
a Republican!
a Democrat!
a conservative!
a liberal!
a Nazi!
and on and on…
This list is never-ending and overwhelming. Can you remember all the things you’re not supposed to be? I can’t. The truth is, you will never make everyone happy or leave everyone unoffended. You will drive yourself absolutely mad trying.
Read: 3 Secrets to Navigating the Cultural Minefields
Yes, some of these things are very important not to be. You shouldn’t (in my humble, yet accurate opinion) be a racist, a bigot, a murderer, or anything that would fall under the umbrella of just plain evil. Some other things fall under particular worldviews, like political parties, religious or non-religious beliefs, or economic policies like capitalism or socialism. These are just the way you see the world and everybody has a worldview. It’s unavoidable.
The problem with only being told what not to be is that it just leaves a vacuum in your life that needs to be filled. Kind of like scooping a cup of water out of the ocean and expecting it to just stay scooped out. But what happens? More water just rushes into the empty space you just made. If you don’t want water there, you have to replace it with something else.
What Should We Be? Be Jesus
We know that there are many things we should not be and that we have to be something, the question is, what should we be?
The same that there is a long list of things not to be, there is a list that is probably just as long of things we should be. Things like loving, forgiving, compassionate, caring, a humanitarian, an environmentalist, a learner, a teacher, etc. Those are all amazing things to be and all things that this world will never have enough of. Some of them should just be a part of our operating system as a human being, but being broken people, selfishness can really get in the way.
I woke up this morning at two o’clock with two words playing over and over in my head and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I’m glad I couldn’t because I started writing this post right away. The two words? “Be Jesus.” That was it, just be Jesus. I know it’s super easy to say, and it’s something many of us strive to be but to be the one man that lived a perfect sinless life is a very high bar to reach.
I mean really. Be Jesus? How arrogant can I be? But if you think about it, Jesus Himself laid it out for us in two simple steps.
‘Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘ Matthew 22:37-39
Now, let’s be perfectly clear, I’m not saying that it’s easy to be Jesus. I don’t even think it was easy for Jesus to be Jesus. First, I think it was a struggle for Him to get even His closest friends to understand who and what He was. Then, He was constantly being hunted and harassed by religious leaders and even screamed at by demonically possessed people. Huh! How’s your day going so far? But even through all of this, He was still Jesus.
One of the things I like to point out to people is that, although He was normally Mister Rogers or Mother Teresa to those who needed him to be that, He could also be William Wallace (Braveheart) for those who needed that. He didn’t mind tearing up a temple courtyard or going face to face with hypocritical religious authoritarians.
Do The Research
It’s not hard to figure out what Jesus was like, how He chose to live His life, and how He interacted with the interesting characters of His time. Read the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It’s all there. From the amazing day, He was born until the day He gave Himself up to pay the price for our sins.
Now go out into the world and Be Jesus!
Brian Caruthers has been blogging and podcasting since 2010. He has a passion and desire to help others in their faith journey. He hopes to inspire and motivate Christian men to seek a closer relationship with Christ with his writings.
