"I Wanna Be Like Mike"

Everybody wants to be like Mike. Or at least thats what we've heard. But who does Mike want to be like? In this case, i am no longer talking about former Washinton Wizards player Michael Jordan, but have since moved on to talking about myself. Now, i am pressed for time, but hope to complete this blog in good time, and with logical or semi-logical precision. Who do I want to be like? There are lots of skills i wish i had, personality traits even, levels of success i wish i could attain (like Jon Kramer's well known conquest of Tetris) but for the most part I am happy with who I am. Sure, we would all change something about ourselves, but i am thankful, i came from a family who built me up with encouragement and love, so that i could be confidant and content with who God made me to be. So there are not too many people that i really want to be like, and at the end of the day two things are true in this kind of a situation. 1. The grass is always greener. and 2. Everyone is screwed up in one way or another so in being more like someone else, and being less like myself i might find a whole new set of screwed-up-ness to deal with.

Anyway. At least at one point in my life, a wise friend, and mentor compared me to The Apostle Peter. Particularly in my younger days. I had this duplicity of character and will that plagued me. At one moment I could be a strong leader in our faith community, and the next, i could be selfish and unable to put my faith where it belonged. For a long time, i have silently lived with that comparison. And i thought it was great. I was brash and confidant and an important leader, but i was also a fool, who could create the biggest messes and fail in large ways. This comparison has always stroked my ego a bit. Even if it meant that i made big mistakes it meant i was important, and that i could be like someone who Jesus would choose to build his church upon.

But last night, and today, i for no reason started reading about Peter again. And because of a statement i read in the book "Too Busy Not to Pray" by Bill Hybels I realized (even though i knew this already, i think God illuminated my mind in this moment) that the story of Peter goes beyond bumbling disciple with lots of potential but can't seem to get his act together enough to do good for extended periods of time. Peter is changed by Christ. Peter has his ultimate failure in denying Christ, and then is reinstated, and challenged by the resurrected Christ. After Christ ascends to Heaven, Peter is completely changed. The power of the Spirit in Peter's life is crazily evidant. He becomes the leader, and the preacher that Jesus knew he could and would be. He is bold, and brash, and confidant, all the things he was before, but without the consistant failures that would set him back, and slow God's work in and through Peter.

He was a new man. And this is who i want to be. I don't want to be associated with bumbling disciple Peter anymore. I want to be changed by Christ, through his Spirit, and become the man that Christ wants me to be. Finally using my skills, and my passions and my personality in the best possible way, the way he made me to be, for his glory. I am still honored (even if it is now only in my own mind) to be compared to Peter, but from now on, i want the comparison to be to the second version of Peter.