“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
That is a powerful quote!
Below is from an author, Lizzy Fox.
Sometimes becoming like Christ does not happen intentionally. Instead as we seek to know Him better, we become like Him.
Recently, I was riding in a large wooden trailer that was being pulled by a tractor. We were fast on our way to see a beautiful waterfall near Rio Dulce in Guatemala. A little boy from one of the villages came sprinting to try and catch a free ride down the road. As he got closer, he reached out and caught the trailer in the back portion by one hand and tripped. For a moment I watched the fear in his eyes as he was being dragged along. We were going too fast to let go, and he could not climb up into the trailer. Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my stomach laying in rocks and cow manure embracing this little boy and pulling him up onto the platform with our group. There was no time to think.
As I looked down at my scraped knees and the dirt that now covered my designer swimsuit, I was overwhelmed by emotion. My friends looked at me in shock. Blood trickled slowly down from my left knee. This is how Jesus loved us. I felt as if heaven had opened up and shown me the change that had taken place in a once callous heart. When we could not help ourselves up, Christ bled and was made dirty for us. In a small way, I realized how my relationship with Christ had affected my impulses. He soiled his perfect robes of heaven that we might me with Him and become like him.
To be like Christ, we should look at how He lived his life. He was kind to all regardless of beauty, career, or social status. He was not impressed by people with important titles. He kneeled to show compassion to an adulteress and dined with tax collectors and sinners. He was the essence of love. We must be like him in not isolating ourselves from those who need us most. Christian community is important but taking care of widows and orphans even more so. The world is broken and we are afraid to get our hands dirty and to pay a price. Jesus paid the ultimate price for us and being Christlike is not free. It is going to cost you something.
Jesus said that Christians would be known by their love for one another. We must do all we can to care for those around us. It begins right where we are. The key to reaching a lost world is not in a pamphlet or a video. These things are good things of course, but the key is to live our lives in the manner that Jesus did. We should show love and compassion to all not just to those we deem worthy. He thought that we were worth it, and we must live in light of that worth and pass the love shown to us to other people. ~Lizzy Fox.
Striving to be more like Christ....
~molly
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