Let me tell you a little something about lingo used on the World Race. There are various phrases that are exclusive to the Race, like “choosing in” (making sure you are fully present in everything) and “speaking life” (reminding someone of the person they are in Christ, not the sinful person they see themselves as). It takes a while to get the hang of these phrases and sometimes you feel like you need a translator as much in team time as you do out on the streets of foreign countries, but after a few months, World Race lingo comes pretty easily to us.
But there’s a concept that I’ve been paying special attention to this month in Rwanda. It’s not exclusive to the Race; in fact, it’s what Christianity is based on, even though sometimes we lose sight of it. We refer to it a lot out here in the field, in times with our entire squad and when we are explaining our beliefs to a stranger.
It’s the concept of being like Jesus.
I know, I know – it’s not a new and revolutionary concept. It’s pretty basic, right?
But maybe not.
And it does come with its own lingo here on the Race, like when we call our squad leader’s handmade leather sandals his “Jesus sandals” or during No-Shave November when we tell our men they are literally looking more like Jesus as their beards get longer and longer. We laugh about our feet stained with red African dirt and say that our feet look like His.
Our squad leaders have encouraged us to look like Jesus, talk like Jesus and even smell like Jesus.
Of course, you don’t have to come on the World Race to hear about being like Jesus. You’ll hear it in churches, in Sunday school and in Christian music. And you can’t forget the ever-popular encouragement of being “His hands and feet.”
Don’t get me wrong. I love it when I hear encouragement to be more like Jesus. I mean, that’s the whole point of being a Christian, right?
But do we always remember what Jesus was really like? What He said and did? When we strive to be more like Jesus, do we look at the Jesus in the Bible or the Jesus that we’ve structured in our own heads? Because I believe that sometimes, those two can be very different.
Fellow Racers, when we were getting ready to embark on this adventure, we read other Racers’ blogs with incredible stories of healings and raising people from the dead and miracles. And we thought to ourselves, “Yes! That’s what I want to do. I want to go out into the world and heal and raise people from the dead and work miracles. I want to be more like Jesus.”
It’s true. He did all of those things. And out here in the field, we do get to see those things happen.
But let me tell you what else Jesus did. What we forget about.
He traveled around with a core group of men whom He taught, loved, encouraged and rebuked. Just as much as He was ministering to people outside of that group, He was ministering to His disciples 24/7. Day after day, He ventured out into crowds of people of all backgrounds, shapes and sizes and ministered to them through their physical and spiritual needs. And then He came home, to this group of ragamuffin men who drove Him absolutely crazy sometimes, and He loved them.
And it was not easy. Let’s just be honest, the disciples didn’t always catch onto things quickly. They quarreled about who was going to sit on which side of Jesus in heaven, they got confused when Jesus spoke in parables and they didn’t believe Jesus when He told them He was going to be put to death on a cross. They were ordinary, unschooled men who had plenty of flaws of their own. And even though Jesus got frustrated with them (understandably so), He continued to love them. He was ever-patient with them. He saw the men they could be instead of the men they were.
And somewhere in desire to be like Jesus in the exciting ways of healing, driving out demons and raising the dead, we have forgotten about being like Jesus in the routine ways of loving those He has placed immediately around us; the people we see and live with day after day; the people who frustrate us and hurt us and fail us.
We continually look outside of the group of people we live with for ministry opportunities with disregard to the needs within our World Race family.
We pride ourselves on not looking down (an oxymoron in and of itself) on “the least of these” we encounter in these eleven countries, yet we live full of judgment toward teammates who are at different points in their spiritual walk than us.
We love the strangers we meet on the street more than our own teammates.
It’s unacceptable.
And the problem is this: How can we expect to look, sound and smell like Jesus when we only acknowledge and strive toward half of His ministry?
This doesn’t just apply to those of us out in the field. You have a family, a group of friends or co-workers, a husband or a wife, parents, children that you travel along this life with.
So here’s my challenge for you: Look at them as your disciples and challenge yourself to love them the way Jesus loved His.
It won’t be easy. It’s not glamorous. But it’s our calling.
Don’t forget about it.
