Many who read this blog believe in Jesus, that He was the Son of God and most of us, hopefully, have a mysterious relationship with Him. But as I read through the gospels, I wonder what practical life lessons we can learn from Christ. Not sure why I ask except it’s all the rage in blogs to give advice about how to live so why not get some tips from watching Jesus for a minute.
Here are a few immediate things I noticed about Christ I’d like to apply to my life. I hope to:
1. Speak the truth: Jesus had no problem speaking the truth, even if it caused all kinds of problems. When He spoke the truth religious systems were threatened, governments were threatened and, of course, people often felt threatened. But nothing stopped Him from saying it.
2. Don’t bother controlling anybody What separates Jesus from more than a few Christian leaders is He was entirely non-manipulative. He tried to control nobody. He had authority, but if somebody wanted to disobey Him, He didn’t stop them. Jesus had the most healthy boundaries of any leader in history. Where many leaders establish loyalty through threats, Jesus established loyalty through love and forgiveness.
3. Understand there’s another reality: Jesus loved people but didn’t seem to take our social rituals false hierarchies too seriously. He had this way of almost rolling His eyes at many of the things we find ourselves slaves too. The church? Governments? Even the death of parents? These things, apparently, mean little in the eternal scheme of things. Jesus operated as if (and of course He knew in fact what we believe in faith) there was something much bigger and much better than what we’ve constructed.
*Photo by Frenkieb, Creative Commons
4. He was not a people pleaser: Jesus was responsible for the redemption of the entire world but had no problem spending time alone with His Father. He knew His role, He understood His job, and He had no problem offending people by hiding so He could recharge. Jesus never ran for office or tried to get people to like Him.
5. He left nothing behind but love: Jesus never built a building or established a trust fund in His name. He left behind only the message He was the Messiah and a small group of people who loved Him and who He loved.
So there’s some practical self-help guidance for all of us. I find the reality I don’t have to people please or leave a legacy or control people to be quite comforting. I hope you do, too.
5 Life Lessons I Learned from Watching Jesus is a post from: Storyline Blog