So, I was drinking some Honest Tea this morning, and on the inside of the wrapper on the bottle there's always some sort of inspirational quote. This is what mine said: "Every man is born an original, but sadly, most men die copies." - Abraham Lincoln
The first thing that I thought of was yesterdays devo on freedom. We are all unique, "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps. 139:14), yet so often we fall into the things of this world. We idolize other people and strive to be an exact replica of their character and behavior. We try to be something or someone we are not. But with the Holy Spirit, we are given freedom, freedom to not be copies, but continue to be originals. "Jesus draws out of you your unique, individual talents and passions." This freedom allows us to always be ourselves, to not be influenced by the powers of this world, but continually be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are free to be unique in Christ, to live in expression of freedom.
The more I think about this, the thing that comes to mind is how we are called to live like Christ. To be a "window through which [people] can see the living Jesus" (SUP-Camp Counselor 101). We are called to living copies of Jesus here on Earth. We will never be able to be perfect copies, but we strive to be like Christ.
I don't know about you guys, but I'd love to be able to say that I died a unique, copy of Jesus Christ. I would say that would be quite the accomplishment. :)
Gotta love the simple truths on the Honest Tea wrappers. The connection between Abe's quote and the readings on freedom is very insightful.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that I'd love to die having lived my life as a copy of Christ's life, where those around me clearly see Jesus through the window of my life. I like visual imagery, and when we talked about that in Camp Counselor 101, I pictured the window in my life. What is on the other side of the window that I am presenting to the world? I pray it is Jesus Christ, and if it is, is the window clean with no other distractions from the attention being on him? Or (I picture some sort of storefront window) is the window dirty, covered in signs/advertisements, or displaying something else alongside Christ?
Thanks for sharing!