We often have a family virtual meet up.We pray and share for a few minutes.Helps to somehow keep in touch despite being so far apart. When the little ones are on the call,we must punctuate the 30 minute meeting for them not to sleep .We therefore sing Sunday school songs . Often my niece will accuse us of singing like tortoises for what she says is dragging her favorite songs. I recall though on this specific day when the detour was from one of my brothers who was so passionate to share what he had been reflecting on.
He mentioned how much he desires to have an older man that he can closely walk with.
“Uhm,dad is on this call,hello?” I thought.
I later reflected on his heartfelt sharing where he had studied the relationship between Elisha and Elijah. Elisha was even older than Elijah yet he submitted to him as his servant and served under him. In fact, when it was time for Elijah to be taken up, he left his mantle to Elisha. His goodbye was a bit dramatic as Elisha had to grab his cloak as he flew up. A lot is left for us to imagine anyway, is it not?
Are there people God has brought into your life and are you able to discern why? God causes our paths to cross with people in certain seasons of our lives. I have had some of those . Amazingly these have recently been mainly older women.One stands out as she has been so open to share in matters of faith, marriage, career, and just letting me in on her life for me to observe and learn .The nice bits and the raw ends as well. I consider it a privilege.Actually some people do walk into our lives and our lives change or help us navigate certain seasons.
I have therefore been reflecting on Paul’s words,
1 Corinthians 11:1
[1]PATTERN YOURSELVES after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah).
Let’s just let that sink in for a moment.
Would you be confident enough to ask someone to follow or to emulate your life as an example? To be honest, I’m not .If i do,i will only do so while afraid.
Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron,So, a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Who are you sharpening and who is sharpening you?
There are paths we need not walk if others have already walked those same paths. If we are already on such paths,God will bring persons to help us see turns to make or pit falls to avoid.
I am learning that sometimes God will not necessarily bring believers but people accomplished in their own right. The children of this world are wiser than the children of light as is written in Luke 16:8.
Provided you can draw boundaries on what is acceptable or not, it’s alright. When we are firmly grounded, it is hard to sway us from our faith or value system.
But back to Paul who urged Timothy to follow his example as he followed the example of Christ.
When we think about this, it’s asking someone to look at us as a blue print. It’s almost subjecting our lives to scrutiny,judgement,criticism. Yet it’s also submitting ourselves and our vulnerabilities to a higher power which is Christ, from whom we are also learning from.
Did Paul tell Timothy to do so because he was Mister perfect or because his life was a yard stick against which to measure?
Was he inviting him to learn from him through his life seasons? Obviously, no one has a perfectly rosy life & indeed roses have thorns too. Remember he is the one who said about having a thorn in his flesh in. So, maybe Timothy knew what that thorn was? I think that’s where being authentic speaks volumes and ministers to others more than projecting a superficially model life.
In fact I have had younger women ask that I mentor them. That means opening up my life to them. Letting them see my mistakes,my struggles,frustrations,disappointments or what has left me feeling vulnerable even as I share more on what they have admired outwardly. At least that’s my understanding of mentorship and it’s not easy.
I recall a particular past season that I took a break from those mentorship pep talks. Being authentic at least for me is allowing someone else to see both the good,the not so pretty -to -look at stuff but which makes the tapestry of our lives.I don’t do so well with faking it or a pretentious life.
Was Paul inviting him to follow him and do what he had done well only?
2 Corinthians 3:2-3
(A)You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, (B)ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not (C)on tablets of stone but (D)on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
Without knowing, we all have a silent audience watching our lives.So you may not have someone that you are purposely or intentionally walking closely with or letting in on your life but with this scripture, you certainly have people reading the letter of your life as a follower of Jesus.Often,it’s a silent audience.
What do they see and read when they turn the pages of your life?
When we live our lives to the audience of one, then we can answer that part of follow me as I follow Christ. We can be authentic as this let’s in others when they can identify with us. Have you struggled in a facet of your life and figured it out by God’s help eventually or perhaps you are still doing so? That’s part of what makes you authentic, when you share it in a safe space. At the end of it all God is seen in us and not really us.In fact God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.
In the book of Ruth, we see Naomi persuading her daughters- in- law to go back to their families after both her sons and her husband’s deaths. But see what Ruth said in verse 16
Please don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Remember her back ground was not a godly one for she was a Moabite and her people worshiped idols. Yet she had seen something that she loved and wanted to emulate in Naomi. Naomi’s life was not perfect at this time, yet Ruth still wanted to stick by her and to follow her. She had made a poor decision to leave her homeland in search for bread and while away in the foreign land ,had lost what was most treasured to her, her husband and her two sons.
Who has been silently following you or who wants to follow you because of your God like Ruth did with Naomi?Why you must resolve to pursue seeing God’s victory in every area that has been a tough mountain to climb.Don’t allow your story to end in the valley but at the mountain top.Dust yourself every time you have a misstep and fall.Clean up as fast as you can and keep walking! It will help someone else rise up when they see how you navigated missing a step or falling.
As we journey through life with Christ He draws people to Himself and sometimes that will be through our lives. Don’t take the credit and do not also try to hide the light that Christ has shone on your paths that we were once dark.
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