My relationship with Jesus
Jesus is lord of my life.
Being a Christian does not make me a super person, it does not remove my fallen humanity, Chrisitianity is actually a bit like having a Gym membership, at gyms you see all sorts, fit people, fat people mid range fitness people, Christians are like that, there are people who have been on the journey following Jesus for a while and they look like him, others are just beginning the journey and are very rough around the edges, still others sometimes just don’t show up for a while. Jesus lives inside all of us and we aspire to be more like him but we can and do make mistakes, these mistakes are not a reflection of God but rather our fallen human condition which he is changing slowly.
What does this mean. It means that I attempt to follow him. I have had supernatural experiences and on at least 3 occasions have been spared death somewhat miraculously.
I have come to learn like most do as they mature in their faith that Jesus is the only one who can follow the rules, I will fall and fail as i try to follow the “rules” but as i follow him who followed every rule for me I fail a little less often and I fall a little less. Each fall and failure is an opportunity to celebrate that he did it for me and that i can serve him in my spite of my failures. Is there still sin in my life yes, will I ever be free from it, not until I leave this world but hopefully the impact of my sin on the world around is a little less every year. As i grow a little older he chips off some of the rougher edges and I become a little bit more like him.
What does this mean for me a as a person.
It means that my sin is no better or worse than those around me, My evil crucified Jesus to the cross as much as the worst person ever born. What does this look like, well if I attend a church and a gay male couple are sitting on one side of me and an unmarried couple are sitting on the other side of me we are all lost, when we accept Jesus for who he is and what he did for me then he and only he will start the process of redeeming me, the gay couple are no better or worse than the unmarried couple. We have this idea of the natural created order of things and we tend to put a human evaluation on the scale of a wrongness and then apply our judgemnts to it but to a God who is utterly perfect anything evil is evil. Therefore I must love those around me, if I am asked the truth about Jesus and sin I must declare that all are lost without him in their life and what they do cannot make them better or good enough and I must live as an example of his love towards those who are lost.
What does this mean for me as a father:
As much as possible I must take his example and live it in front of my kids, If I say I am something there must be some reality of it in my life. I must be careful not to let things become relationship and realtionships become things. I must cultivate and prune the experiences of my children to give them the best possible springboard into life. I must reflect on all that God has revealed to me and pass along those lessons that apply to my kids so that they can avoid the pitfalls of life and be better prepared to enrich the relationships they have with those around them.
What does this mean for me as a husband:
If each partner dies to self and lives to serve and enrich the life of the other person this then is a perfect marriage as the desires that each person in the marriage has are met by the their partner. But dying to yourself is hard it is so hard, the will screams at you but what about me what about the things I want what if they don’t choose to meet me when I need it. And still you must die and serve trusting in faith that the relationship you build will have the end point you desire and that you will be able to openly communicate truth and love to your partner.