Dear friends,

Cults are often marked by conformity. Members dress, talk, and act in eerily similar ways.

But healthy Christian community is eclectic. 

Because as your heart and character look more like Christ’s, you become more distinctly you: the person God made you to be. 

Renovaré’s tagline is becoming more like Jesus. This doesn’t mean your life will externally look like a first-century robe-wearing Jewish man. It does mean that your life — as a plumber, pastor, teacher, knowledge worker, or full-time parent — becomes ever more permeated with the rhythms, actions, and reactions Jesus would have if he were you.

That last idea, living your life as Jesus would if he were you, is one I’ve heard to the point of overfamiliarity. But it revolutionized the way I think about being a disciple today. Even now, if I take the time to chew and digest that picture through my imagination — Jesus working my job, Jesus raising my kids — I feel nourished by what life can be.

Nourished… and sometimes discouraged.

The Enemy always distorts what’s good. Thinking about how Jesus would live our life may lead to shame if we focus on the distance between where we are and where we want to be (or, ought to be, if our thoughts are mired in measurements). 

But the Holy Spirit invites us to focus on Jesus and the mystery that he’s in us and already at work. Jesus is with us to guide and teach. He is patient and ready to forgive. He is able — with our cooperation — to unbend us so that his actions and words bubble up naturally from our hearts.

As we wrap up looking at the big questions covered in the online course From the Inside Out—today’s newsletter explores How Do I Follow Jesus?—it’s a good time to remember that the renewable energy source for following Jesus is love for Jesus. 

A friend and I were chatting in line for our weekly after-church potluck lunch a few weeks ago. He mentioned that a key moment in his faith journey was rekindling his love for Jesus by listening to the gospels. Using an audio Bible (like the excellent Dwell), he walked repeatedly through the staggering accounts of the Son of Man. After months of this — I think he logged a couple hundred hours — he was awestruck and drawn to the person of Jesus in a fresh way.

I’ll close this little series with how Carolyn Arends closes the course: fall in love with Jesus, stay in love with Jesus, and it will decide everything (here’s the full quote).