Do you know Susie Super Christian? I do. I've known her or someone like her pretty much my whole life. I look at Susie and I wish I could be dedicated like her, read my Bible like her, have a willingess to serve like her. She does it all and still manages to look presentable, have her house clean, and discipline her children without losing her patience, or worse yet, her mind. My entire life, I have wanted to be like Susie. When I was in high school, I wanted to have the courage she had to stand against peer pressure. When I was in college, I wanted to have the courage she had to stand against peer pressure, maintain excellent grades, and to go on mission trips every time there was a school break. When I entered the "working world", I wanted to have her endurance. The endurance to get up at 4 am and study her Bible, still be on time or even early for work, and then go to the soup kitchen after work to serve others. When I got married and had a child, I wanted to exemplify the Proverbs 31 woman that I saw her exemplify everyday. Not only did she cook 3 meals a day, go to work, bathe her children, feed the dog and take out the garbage, but she also taught Sunday School, kept the nursery on Wednesday night, and managed to squeeze in a couple of those mission trips that she loved so much during her college years. OH TO BE LIKE SUSIE SUPER CHRISTIAN!!! My life's ambition! But here's what I didn't know about Susie. Susie had her struggles. Susie had a rocky relationship with her parents in high school. Susie got pregnant by her boyfriend in college and had an abortion. Susie stole money from her job to support her compulsive shopping habit. Susie doesn't love her husband anymore and is having an online affair. But I don't know any of this. Because I'm so blinded by the fact that she is everything I think I want to be. I am wanting to imitate Susie because I think she is perfect. Susie isn't perfect. But here's the good part. The part where my great and awesome God reminds me that no one is perfect, no one is good, except for His Son. His Son that died on the cross for me and for Susie - for our sins that people see and for our sins that people don't see. Then He reminds me that I should be imitating Jesus, not Susie.
Why do we do this? Why do we strive to be like other people? People who aren't perfect. People who didn't die on the cross for our sins. People who don't even love us, or could ever love us the way Christ does.
Well let's forget about Susie, because some of you have already realized that the people you know in this world aren't perfect and you wouldn't want to be like them anyway. But here's what you do. You are looking at people in the Bible, and you are thinking, "I'll never measure up to David, Peter, Paul, or fill in the blank." Guess what! David, Peter, Paul, or any other person in the Bible with the exception of Christ Himself, didn't measure up either. They weren't perfect and they sinned just like you do. And if you can't remember any of that, let me just remind you.
David: God's anointed one, a man in the lineage of Christ! A man after God's own heart. Well David wasn't perfect. David lusted, committed adultery, and then murdered someone.
Peter: Disciple of Christ. Literally walked with Jesus on this earth. Well Peter wasn't perfect either. He lacked faith (remember the whole walking on water thing?), he cut off someone's ear, he denied Jesus not once but THREE times.
Paul: Imitator of Christ. Persecuted for Christ. Well Paul, he wasn't perfect either. He persecuted Christians. He held the cloaks of the men that stoned Stephen.
Well now that you know that people in the Bible weren't perfect either, let me share this with you. There is no person in this world that measures up. NO ONE! We all fall short. EVERY ONE OF US! Even people in the Bible that we look up too, that we try to model our lives after, even Susie Super Christian. So what does that tell you? I know what it tells me. It is telling me to model my life after the one person that walked on this earth that didn't sin, the one person who was a perfect enough sacrifice to atone for not only my sins, but your sins too. This is the man we should be looking to, to be our example. Lots of people do lots of good things but Christ did everything right and he has all of the answers. I promise you (and you can take this to the bank) that if you are modeling your life after Christ, you will have joy unspeakable. Not just happiness, but joy. Joy in Christ. I pray that you have it and if you don't have it, I pray that He will not stop pursuing you until you recognize that He is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE and you surrender your whole heart to Him. That's all he wants. He just wants your heart, all of it. Let Him worry about the rest. Because if He has your heart, you will want to be an imitator of Christ.
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