Imitation vs. Intimacy

I spent time recently working on some curriculum for my youth around the idea of “Storyline”...this whole idea that the story of Christ feeds in and through scripture and we have been grafted into the story.  Our story becomes part of Christ’s story and Christ’s story gets lived out through our lives, our stories.  And I decided to start the story at the beginning (a very good place to start).  Genesis.  Where the scene is set, the setting established, key characters named (aka: God and, for my purposes, generic man and woman made in the image of God – as generic man and woman created in the image of God are the continuing although ever changing characters in God’s ongoing narrative), and the plot alluded to in every meaningful way. 

I was working out my outline and got to Genesis 3.  Where Satan (the behind-the-scenes antagonist) enters the picture.  Here are Adam and Eve in perfect, naked bliss.  And Satan, disguised as the serpent, throws them a curve ball with a temptation.  A bite from the tree of good and evil.  He tempts them with the one thing they don’t have.  And the ironic thing is...they don’t have it because without that choice, it doesn’t exist!  Pefect.naked.bliss. Perfection!  They can’t know the difference between good and evil because there is no evil!  There is no difference!  God knows.  And Adam and Eve choose that to know what God knows would be better than what they now have...an existence where God walks with them in the garden in the cool of the day.  In in a moment, in a bite, they choose imitation over intimacy. 

 . 

Imitation over intimacy.

They choose to be like God instead of to be with God.  They were made for relationship with the Almighty.  WE were made for relationship with the Almighty!  Built into the core of who we are is a craving and longing for connection with the supernatural because it was wired into the purpose of existence!  But perfect relationship was traded for imperfect knowledge.  Before Genesis 3 even comes to an end, we see God hint to a bigger plan.  The plan that, in retrospect, we can see alluding to the coming of Christ, the coming of a Messiah.  One who would save humankind from their sins and *drum roll please* restore relationship! 

Seems basic.  Maybe even “old school” theology.  Not real deep.  Not above the obvious for a sub par biblical scholar.  So what’s the point?  It seems basic but it caught me profoundly and new though the story be told hundreds of times.  I have always taken the basic reality of the actuality and attributed my post-New-Testament choice...  “I have Jesus,” I’ve always thought – far too easily, “I made a choice to accept the price, the mercy, the grace, and the conquering over the grave and therefore I have restored relationship.  It’s come full circle.”  Wrong.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Wrong.

Wrong because there is no full circle. (Unless the circle starts back over with me destroying restored relationship.)  Wrong because I almost daily fall into the old but new pattern of choosing imitation over intimacy.   I choose to be like God instead to be with Him.  I choose to be my own god (isn’t that what Adam and Eve wanted, to be on par with their creator?) and make my own choices and seal my own demise while doing things just so and so rather than live inside of restored relationship.  I want to know things I shouldn’t know...I worry instead of trust and harbor instead of forgive (both instances where I know the difference between good and evil and still live outside of relationship...).  I have Jesus but in a moment, I push aside the intimacy I was created for.  I choose to be like God instead...a temptation with no real fulfillment. 

Oh, sure, it looks different now.  I call myself a Christian, you know.  I believe that my attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus (Philippians 2) and that whatever I do, I should for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10).  I am a firm believer that asking yourself honestly “What Would Jesus Do?” and responding accordingly is without question necessary.  James says faith without works is dead.  Absolutely. Actions matter.  Looking the part - not without merit.  And yet I think I need to be reminded that works without faith is flattery on the verge of mockery.  Imitation crab.  Cheap, processed, substitute lacking any of the reality.  Oh, yes, I want to look and act like Jesus. Truly. But I’m not in relationship in such a way as to know how He would have me mirror Him. And that's the problem.  

I am still trading intimacy for imitation.  I want to look like Jesus, but I don’t really even “carve” out the time for the One who should be infiltrating my every moment.  I end up little more than a white-washed tomb and goody-goody Pharisee of Jesus’ day...convinced I’m closer to God because I look the part.  But I really do want to look like Jesus! I want you to look at me and see Jesus. I want you to know that I’m a Christian because of my love (John 13).  I want you to know the power of Christ over death in the resurrection (Romans 1).  I want you to know me to be merciful and gracious and humble and a servant and...  That’s all well and good.  It is.  But looking like Jesus and being intimately connected to the God of the universe?  Oh, those are two separate things.

The interesting part is that intimacy breeds imitation. (Imitation will almost never intrinsically breed intimacy – “who cares? I basically look the part anyway?”)  It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure this out.  Just look at couples who have been married for 20 years... Long before they get to the matching jogging suit stage, they physically start to resemble each other.  Science has actually proved this!  And that is just one off handed example. 

For another basic personal anecdote...my best friend, Liz, has an eyebrow. Two actually.  But when she seeks to show her displeasure, disdain, or overall unsatisfied confusion with whatever is being displayed before her eyes (often something I’ve said), she raises just one eyebrow.  And purses her lips.  And brings her chin to the side as if to make eye contact more specifically and to say “Really?  REALLY?”   If you know Liz, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  She does this.  And now, because I spend quite a bit of time with her, I do it too.  I didn’t start making faces in the mirror and practicing before leaving the house one morning.  I didn’t think “I would like to claim that face she makes”.  In fact, I hadn’t even realized I had picked it up until I was with Liz and proceeded to give something her own wiry look and she declared “That’s my face!  That’s my look!  I do that!” A

The more time you spend with someone; the more intimately you’re connected to someone; the more you begin to pick up on his or her isms.  Habits.  Character.  Nature.  It’s just the same with God.  How could it not be?  Intimacy is the original design.  A design where the key secondary characters were made in the very likeness of God.  Made to resemble God.  (And so the greatest spawns the lesser).  And such is the time spent abiding in intimate relationship with the only One who both knows and loves me fully. 

Today will I choose to imitate or be intimate?  To hide or to abide?  

"So come with me, I'll show you life even better than this. Come with me, I'll show you love, you didn't know could exist. Better than your first crush; better than your first kiss.  I'll show you how to live..."
 - Sanctus Real