On Second Thought...

“It’s just like, it’s just like you’re Jesus and we are the twelve disciples!”

I had just gotten done counting out my young charges and was getting ready to go on a rainy nature hike...

“...nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Plus me. Alright, let’s go! Everyone follow me!”

“Twelve of us and one of you! It’s just like, it’s just like you’re Jesus and we are the twelve disciples!”

I cocked my head to look at my excited 6th grade girl with her incredible revelation. My tired head. The sprinkling rain. The cold air. The long day. I was amused but not really following her. I shook my head with a wiry grin. “Umm...not so much. Only the numbers, actually...”

My faithful dozen and I hiked around camp, sang in the TP’s, jumped in some puddles, and ran back in the rain. I shared my newest camper quote with a couple appreciative staff members who joined me in a good chuckle and I intended to add it to my growing list of silly things my campers say.

That was Tuesday. The day came and the day went and Wednesday followed in a manner much the same. But something about that quote “It’s just like you’re Jesus and we’re the 12 disciples!” continued to circle through my head.

Thursday it struck me that perhaps I was the one mistaken.
At least on principle.
I was eager to write off the whimsical musings of a 12-year-old. I sat there thinking “actually, no. I am not Jesus and you are not disciples and I have no idea where that came from...”
But maybe I was the one needing a perspective change.

The fact of the matter remains...

She didn’t actually think I was Jesus. Nor did she actually think that she and her 11 brave friends willing to choose the only activity not indoors were truly disciples.

But what if she did?

Am I not called to imitate Christ? Ephesians 5:1 tells me, as one dearly loved, to be an imitator of Christ and to walk in the way of love. To boldly follow and to also boldly lead. Part of me wants brave followers. A group of excited individuals eager to learn and ready to go where no one else wants to be in order to be where I might be because where I am headed is where Jesus is already directing...

Paul was bold enough to tell the Corinthians to follow his example as he followed the example of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). [And the fact remains that people did. To the confusion of the early church, Paul starts his first letter to the Corinthians by breaking up the dispute of who follows who – instead reinforcing that all are on a journey to Christ, there was no division (1 Cor 12-13)].

But Paul also knew exactly what John the Baptist eagerly stated. It wasn’t about him. For John, the One who came after (Mark 1:7). For Paul it was about the One who came before and stayed. They were pointing to the One who was and is and is to come. But in the mean time people had to look twice. To second guess who they were talking to. At which point John and Paul and each like them were able to state “Not I but...” and finish their story with the Word that became Flesh...

I want my actions, my attitude, my love, my joy, my service, my story to send people into a tizzy. “I know you said your name is Anika but you remind me an awful lot of Jesus...” At one point, I think during my sophomore year of college, my “about me” section on my facebook profile simply read: “Someday I want to be confused with Jesus”. And I still do...

So on second thought, I hope a slew of people need to look at me with the same excited eyes, ready to follow me on a journey quite unknown and an adventure untold with the words “It is just like, it is just like you are Jesus!...” on their lips. But I hope it is because they are standing there confused at the life I live and the way I live it, stating simply but eagerly “I know you said your name is Anika, but you remind me an awful lot of Jesus...”