Be Like Jesus

"Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.'" - Luke 23:34

I've had people say really hurtful things to me and behind my back. I've had people criticize me without knowing me (and knowing me) and each time it made me angry and resentful… until I really tried to learn more from Jesus. It's really easy to write someone off because they're a jerk or they're shady, or maybe we just think they're pretentious. It's a lot harder to be who Jesus calls us to be, but it's also the right way to be. If I'm honest, I can admit that the times when I've been less than pleasant to people it has been because of my own insecurities and issues, and not so much with the person my attitude was directed towards… but I think that if each one of us takes the time to evaluate ourselves, we'd come to the same conclusion. It sounds cliche, but none of us is perfect and there are times when we've each been jerks to people, we've each done messed up things, so we can't really call anyone out when we've been guilty of the same things, some more than others.

Regardless, it's not ourselves we should be so concerned about or even about why people do the messed up things they do… at the end of the day, the only thing we need to worry about is how to be more like Jesus. He had His good friends, but He also sought out the shady people… the sinners and the prostitutes because He knew they had a story too and they needed His redemption. Jesus healed people and many times they didn't even give Him thanks. Jesus loved people, sat down at dinner with people and they handed Him over to be beaten and killed. If anyone has the right to talk about shady, messed up people, it's Jesus… but instead, as He was dying, He asked His Father in Heaven to forgive them because if anyone understands that we're all flawed and that sometimes we choose to do the wrong things and STILL deserve a chance to change our lives, it's Jesus. And He's who we're called to be like… He's who we need to be like… He's who we can be like.

Today's Prayer:
Father, You wouldn't have sent Your Son Jesus to redeem us if You didn't know that through His example we could be just like Him. We fall so short of what You want us to be like and we hurt others in the process, and then overlook our own faults when someone hurts us. I know I'm supposed to be like Jesus, but there's so much space between who I am and who He is… Help me, Lord, to close that gap and love and see others as He did. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen.