Living it Like Jesus

Recently, my good friend (and fellow blogger) +Nat Tirion released a post sharing his heart behind our shared hashtag, #LiveItLikeJesus. As such, I wanted to share my own heart behind it.

Take some time to go read Nat's post, and check out his blog as a whole; I love to read his wisdom and hear his thoughts on a wide array of issues, such as politics, faith, etc. from a conservative standpoint. Plus, he's only a little younger than me, which encourages me because we often face the same ordeals. Check him out here!

I started using the hashtag a little after a major life transformation. As many of you know, in the January of 2014, my God called me to stop living FOR Him, and start living WITH Him. Instead of following a set of rules, Jesus wanted me to start pursuing Him through relationship. Ignorant of what God had in store for me, I took on His challenge, and it's been a crazy ride ever since!

Soon after, I started writing; initially this blog was solely on Google+. God inspired me, almost daily, with a paragraph's worth of material that urged readers to pursue Christ in their own lives. At the end of many of these posts, I put the #LiveItLikeJesus hashtag. Before I started using it, God gave it to me almost as a life motto; a simple phrase to remind me throughout my day that it is Jesus that I should emulate. Following in His footsteps is a major part of falling in love with Him, and so it just made sense to have an easy to remember phrase handy whenever I needed to remember it.

I shared it with my close friends and youth pastor once, and now, they'll occasionally throw it in a sentence. It makes me happy that my heart has become others' hearts too; for it really isn't my heart at all, but God's. Sanctification is the lifelong process which every believer undergoes, and it's purpose? To make the believer more like Christ. To help you live it like Jesus just a little more.

Nat and I met online early on in my writing 'career,' and I loved what he had to share. I saw his posts in a community I was also a part of, and eagerly read his wisdom and insight. I'm not sure who made first contact, but soon enough we were emailing each other daily encouragements. Knowing him a little deeper than the average reader of his blog, I can tell you all that he is such a solid guy with a heart for Jesus. Recently, we haven't been in touch as much (busyness just took over, I think), but I still love reading his work. Shoutout to you, buddy!

The hashtag was, and still is, my heart for myself and for believers everywhere. Living life like Jesus is a simple way to state a complex process. Like I said earlier, sanctification is a lifelong process. And since it doesn't happen overnight, there will always be something new to tackle in our lives; sin we need to conquer, baggage we need to leave in His hands, and a world to share His light with. There are near infinite ways to tweak our lives into His image, and as such, no one on earth could truly reflect the entirety of His character. Our goal is not to become Him, but to get as close as we can before we meet Him.

And sanctification doesn't happen of our own accord, either! In my personal experience, trying harder doesn't work. We simply are not strong or good enough to change our nature into something resembling Christ. This is where grace comes in; what we cannot do (which is pretty much all of the Christian lifestyle), God steps in for us. You don't just decide to stop sinning; it's a battle that can only be won with Christ above, below, before, behind, and inside of you.

In fact, God's goodness not only transforms us, but covers us. 2 Corinthians 13:8, paraphrased, tells us that even when we do wrong (and that means ANY sin, big or small), His goodness is SO good that even in our failure, His plan pulls through. Crazy, huh? 

Speaking of failure, that's part of the #LiveItLikeJesus lifestyle. We will fail. No need to be frightened about it! We strive for Christ, but only achieve dirty rags. When we fail, we cannot beat ourselves up! Our God is immutable, which is a big word for unchanging, and so the love that He loves us with doesn't just disappear when we do wrong; it's always there!

Nat, in his parallel post, has an amazing anecdote about his charity to a man. THAT is reflecting Christ's character. You know, Jesus didn't just walk around in His sandals, telling people where their thinking was wrong and how they should love their neighbor. When He saw a need, He met it. A major part of Christ's ministry wasn't teaching; it was helping. Many times in the gospels, we see Christ was "moved with compassion" and even when inconvenient, He stopped to offer His services.

Jesus was fully human, and fully God. That means that He felt tired, and frustrated, and annoyed, and angry, and fearful. None of these are sins. But it does show us that when helping hurt, He did so anyways. He came to minister to the Jews, but along the way, He cared for the Gentiles. Ultimately, with His death, He brought Jews and Gentiles alike into His eternal kingdom, with the same benefits, if only they would give their lives to Him. 

You see, to live it like Jesus, it takes Jesus to help you. It's not of your own effort, but rather by God's grace. It's a lifestyle that will change the way you think and view the world around you; one that opens your eyes to the ways we can help, and teach, others about our God. Living life like Jesus is what He calls us to; sanctification is His process to do so. So, as you continue your day today, remember to #LiveItLikeJesus!