Let Jesus Navigate, and God Only Knows Where You’ll End Up!

I was thinking the other day how disenfranchised I am with all the “fall in love with Jesus” talk. Church songs carry that flavour, truisms in books hold it dear, and I just don’t. (I know I’m not alone in this!)

I need to make this point first: there are nearly 7 billion unique people in the world. Each one of those people can have a different but valid take on the nature of God. Put another way, God is so complex that he can reveal himself in 7 billion different shades simultaneously. So for some people the romantic thing with God may be legit, and there are Biblical metaphors that clearly lean that way. It just doesn’t do it for me. And truthfully, a lot of guys are going to face this issue. So I was imagining a new way to conceive this ‘love’ thing. I landed on the idea of a buddy movie. (Did I just use “buddy” to refer to Christ? Stick with me: I’ll fix this!)

Think of the epitome of the genre. It’s never the driver who instigates; the guy in the driver seat is always far too responsible for that (and the car is usually someone else’s so messing with it is pretty high stakes). It seems like it’s always the slightly off-kilter guy sitting in the passenger seat that suggests all the crazy stuff. (Did I just suggest that Christ is the co-pilot? And off-kilter too? Am I just digging myself into a hole here!?)

Check it out: in the Bible, Christ walks up to these regular schmoes who are going about their daily routine, and he says “Follow me.” Who does that? Who walks up to somebody obviously immersed in the stuff of life and says “Let’s have an adventure together!” Could you do that to your mechanic? To your plumber? I’m almost sure that that wouldn’t go well. (It would be kinda fun to try!) However in those stories, it seems like the disciples just go with it. (Now who’s crazy, amiright?)

Check what they got up to. They drew huge crowds. They witnessed (and even performed!) miracles. They saw Jesus face off with the most influential leaders of their day. It was like a 3yr road trip, and they got up to all kinds of shenanigans. A few times, they had to run for their lives! It all ended with the big showdown: Jesus vs. the religious institution, the legal system and the military weight of the government. Jesus was executed. And he still won!

I work with someone who doesn’t want me to present missions as an adventure. I sometimes wonder what his beef is. Because it really is! It really, really is! Jesus is still the instigator. He’s still stirring dissent, wreaking havoc on assumptions, and working to illuminate truth in hearts and minds. He is the perfect counter to evil, however you define it, in every form that it exists. He constantly invites people to follow him into all kinds of far-out, zany stuff to build their communities and change people’s hearts. He’s in it the thickest when the stakes are highest. When I see it that way, I think: man, I love this guy!