Who Do YOU Want to Be Like?

I can’t believe it’s been more than 25 years since Gatorade debuted the “Be like Mike” advertising line.  For the sports-challenged, “Mike” is Michael Jordan, one of the best, if not THE best, basketball players in history.  Basketball might not be your measuring stick for greatness, but Michael was amazing.  Just like Nike challenges us all now to “Just do it”, Gatorade thought it had struck marketing gold by encouraging us to be “like” the greatest.  How do you feel about that?  Encouraged or intimidated?

It’s not an unlikely occurrence to hear something similar from the pulpit of your church on Sunday morning.  “Be like Jesus.”  Of course, a pastor would say something like that.  They want us ALL to be like Jesus!  And we should!  But hearing it can be either encouraging or intimidating.  Do I have the spiritual capacity to be like Jesus any more than I have the physical ability to be like Mike?  Well, actually yes, but those are pretty big shoes to fill either way!

God always has a way of making things work out for us.  After all, when He knew we didn’t stand a chance of being good enough to spend eternity with Him, didn’t He send Jesus to offer Himself for our salvation?  So, doesn’t it make sense that He also has a plan to help us walk faithfully once we’ve been adopted into His greatest-of-all-time family?  Rather than share all the Scripture that reminds us about our abilities to be great in the faith, I’ll just share a couple.  First from the Apostle Peter:

…Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have obtained a faith of equal privilege with ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ…His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.   2 Peter 1,3

Whoa.  Peter reminds us that OUR faith has equal privilege with HIS faith and that of the other apostles.  He says we have “everything required for life and godliness”.  So I don’t have to be like Mike, or Jesus, I just have to be like Peter.  Wait a minute!  That still sounds like a trap!  I’m supposed to be like the guy who walked on water and preached at Pentecost?  Doesn’t sound like me!  But then I remember that this was also the guy who began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus; the one who denied Christ three times; who always spoke before he thought, and hid while Jesus was on the cross.  OK, that sounds more like me.

Still, let me throw in an Old Testament example just for good measure.  How about Elijah, of whom James wrote:

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land.  Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.  James 5:17-18

James says that Elijah was just like you.  Forget that he raised the dead and conquered the prophets of Baal.  He also had his woe-is-me moments; he doubted himself at times.  But Elijah had power through prayer.  Like Peter, he picked himself up after his weak moments and let the divine power of God work through him.  So can you.

Do you want to be like Jesus?  Admirable.  Why not first see if you can be like Peter?  Or Elijah?  While I might not be ready for the NBA of faith, I might be able to handle myself with a bunch of old fat guys in a pick-up game.  Hmmm.  I wonder what the Men’s Group is doing after Bible Study Saturday?

Jacob