God Running is a place for anyone who wants to love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.
Hi everyone! Kurt is out of town this week, so he’s asked for me to take over writing this week’s blog. For today, we’re going to take a slight detour from publishing chapters of Kurt’s upcoming book, but I still want to keep on the general theme.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
The working title for the book is The Jesus Shortcut: How to Become More Like Jesus (in the Shortest Possible Time). I’ve been summing the thesis up to myself this way: If you want to be like Jesus, the best thing you can do is to surround yourself with other people who are also trying to be like Jesus. Jim Rohn, one of 20th century America’s most prominent business philosophers, said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Our values, our behaviors, even our mannerisms and speaking patterns are all influenced by the people closest to us. Humans are mimetic creatures naturally; we tend to copy what people around us are doing, which is why trends take hold. One minute everyone’s calling things groovy, and the next kids are shouting “6-7!” Nobody seems to know why, other than that other people are doing it.
When I was a little kid, I seemed to have a natural talent for impressions. I loved to watch Sesame Street, and my favorite character was Ernie. I could do a nearly perfect impression of Ernie (at least insofar as a four-year-old could), laugh and all. My grandparents had also bought a Super NES for my Aunt Pammy before she tragically passed away, and one of the games they had for it was Duck Hunt. We played that game whenever we were over at their house, and I quickly developed an impression of the dog from that game who laughs at you if you miss your shots. As I grew up I learned how to copy a variety of accents and developed some pretty solid impressions of friends, family, and a few famous people. In short, I have a lot of experience copying others.
Unfortunately, I didn’t just keep that proclivity for mimicry as a fun party trick or a useful skill for the theatre. This became sort of how I lived; copying other people that I admire. As a teenager, this habit of copying those around me really took off. I copied my brother out of the faith, I copied my best friend into theatre, and I copied another close friend back into the faith.
Now, good things still came from those experiences; I learned what life was like apart from God, I found something that I love to do to this day, and most importantly I found my way back to God with more conviction than if I had never left. But, at the time (and even to a degree now), I was trying to copy them. Even after coming back to faith, I wasn’t trying to be like Jesus; I was trying to be like my friend, who was trying to be like Jesus. But, and I’m telling myself this as much as anyone, if your goal is to be like Jesus by surrounding yourself with others who are trying to be like Jesus, be mindful of who it is you’re trying to imitate.
Imitate Me as I Imitate Christ
Paul encourages the faithful to follow his example in becoming like Jesus in 1 Corinthians:
“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)
But it’s important to really consider what he means, and even more what he doesn’t mean. He’s calling for us to imitate his imitation of Christ, not imitate him imitating Christ.
I can understand where that sounds like the same thing, but hear me out: Paul wants us to be imitators of Christ. He wants us to look at Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and aim to be like Him in all things. That’s what Paul is shooting for in his own life, and so that’s what he wants us to do. What he doesn’t want is for us to erase ourselves and adopt Paul’s personality and character, focusing all our attention on copying what Paul is doing and how Paul is doing it, and think that we’re imitating Christ in doing so. To do that would be to essentially idolize Paul, and earlier in this same letter we see that some people were doing just that, and it was causing divisions in the church in Corinth. (1 Corinthians 1:10-17)
Jesus doesn’t want more Pauls (no offense if your name is Paul). He’s already got one. What He wants is a vast number of unique reflections of Him.
Reflecting Jesus
There’s a metaphor that originally comes out of Buddhism, but I think is really great for Christians to adopt. It says that if you use your finger to point to the moon, a wise person will follow the finger to look at the moon, but a fool will mistake the finger for the moon. Paul, and likewise the Christians we surround ourselves with, are pointing to Jesus. We will inevitably pick up some mannerisms, thoughts, and viewpoints from them as we spend time with them, but they are not Jesus. Our goal ought not be to copy them, but to copy the one they point to; not to imitate them imitating Christ, but to imitate the fact that they are imitating Christ.
There’s also a really incredible quote from Carlo Acutis that backs this up further. If you’re not familiar with him, Carlo was a young man from Italy not too much older than me who died in 2006 at the age of 15 from an aggressive form of leukemia, and his love for Jesus has quickly become a major source of inspiration for Christians around the world. He once said, “All people are born as originals, but many die as photocopies.”
Again, we’re bound to pick up things from the people we spend time with, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But Jesus wants you, the unique, unrepeatable individual who He made purposefully apart from every other human being throughout all of history. He doesn’t want a copy of someone you think is better than you; He wants you.
So yes, surround yourself with other people trying to be like Jesus. If you do that, you’re much more likely to be like Him. But don’t allow yourself to become a photocopy of someone else in the process. Jesus made you as a particular reflection of Himself. You reflect Him from an angle that nobody else can.
And the last thing He wants is for that to be lost. He loves you far too much.
-Wes
The Love Like Jesus Book
Looking for something meaningful to listen to during the quieter winter moments? This audiobook offers practical wisdom, real stories, and gentle guidance you can take with you—whether you’re driving, folding laundry, or sneaking in a walk between the snowflakes.
Let it speak to your heart this season.
We recently released the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Jonathan St. John. And it’s available on the following platforms:
It’s also available on Amazon, Hoopla, Audiobooksnow, Chirp, Libro, Overdrive, and virtually everywhere audiobooks are offered.
