Try Him again.
“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.”
Luke 2:10
2 Chainz starts off one of his most famous songs like this, “they ask me what I do and who I do it for, and how I come up with this [stuff] up in the studio.”
While he never delves further into these questions raised by this unnamed audience, they are good questions. What do you do? Why do you do what you do? And what is the passion driving it?
The New Year is a great time to refocus and reexamine what is driving you. That is why I decided to write out a personal mission and vision statement.
Now I have many friends who are businessmen and women and flourishing brand consultants but their collective genius wasn’t available at 3 to 5 am when I am up writing this so I had to do it on my own. Here’s the rough draft:
My mission is to continue to focus on Jesus and allow Him to continually mold me into a man and friend He can better use to simply and clearly reintroduce Him as a loving and practical God for anyone.
My vision is to “simply and clearly reintroduce Jesus as a practical life-changer.”
While the wording may be tweaked the sentiment stands. If I boiled down what matters to me at the core, it’s helping others to see that Jesus is not just a name and a reason your mom dragged you out of bed some weekends, but a practical life changer. This is why this verse means so much to me.
In Luke when Jesus is being introduced to shepherds minding their business outside of the city, the angels introduce the news that Jesus is here as Good news that will bring joy to all people.
I think so often we miss out on what Jesus can truly be in our lives because we don’t personally try Him out or even know that there’s more to Him than old ladies liking Him and His name being associated with churches.
But this account is letting us know that the mere gossip that a baby was born would not just be news, but good news, that would bring joy to all people. So if the concept of Jesus doesn’t strike you as good, if the things He is associated with don’t bring you joy, or if the Jesus you’ve been interacting with didn’t seem to positively affect ALL people, odds are it’s not the right Jesus.
So allow Him to reintroduce Himself.
Jesus is a God who loves you when others don’t.
He is a God who chooses you when others won’t.
I’m sorry if the church presented Him as someone you have to change for.
I’m sorry if the people who were supposed to love you growing up tainted what love looks like to you.
I just want to plead that you give Him one chance to introduce Himself to you personally this year. It may not be in church but I want you to be open.
Honestly, I thought I knew Jesus my whole life but only relatively recently He started to mean something practically. He started to give me peace and joy. He started to give me a drive and a reason to get up in the morning.
He isn’t just an idea, but a person who can bring real peace, joy, and purpose throughout your life.
Is that something you crave? Odds are if you are being honest and in the demographic, I am talking to it does.
Jesus promises to give all three.
I met Him for myself and it was the best thing to ever happen to me.
I pray you do the same.
Follow me as I try to account for my experiences with Him and I pray we can build a community that is learning to love and be loved by Him and each other more and more each day.
If you have any questions and want to dive into who Jesus is, you can text me @ (615) 208-2692
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