Encountering the Warrior KingSample

Day 1: If I Could Be Like...

Before we begin: Each day of this plan, we have included an audio of author Michael Thompson reading the day's devotional. Feel free to press the play button to experience being read to in the author's voice.

Devotional:

When I was little, I used to dress up as my heroes. Sometimes, I was Superman. A towel or sheet would do for a cape. I’d stand with my fists on my hips, then jump off the couch and “fly” for a second. I’d leap over Lincoln Log buildings with a single bound and lift whatever rock or log I could to show my strength.

Other times, I was one of my sports heroes, announcing my name as I swung a bat or dribbled a ball. The play-by-play always dramatically moved to two outs with bases loaded or to the countdown of the game clock: “Three, two … Havlicek fakes, he shoots … Celtics win!”

Imitation is truly the greatest form of flattery. Who can forget the commercial in 1992 when Gatorade sold us more than a drink—they sold us a dream.

Sometimes I dream that he is me.

You’ve got to see that’s how I dream to be.

I dream I move, I dream I groove like Mike.

If I could be like Mike.

Like Mike.

If I could be like Mike.

Tongues out and the number 23 on their shirts, many a boy and girl thought, If I could be like Mike... aspired to be like... Michael Jordan.

Jesus had that same effect on young hearts. Children flocked to him. Jesus was their hero. Maybe it was because he healed them or because he called them to be part of miracles like the feeding of thousands or maybe because he just listened to them.

Jesus said we would need a faith like theirs, like a child’s, if we were ever going to come into the kingdom. I believe the children not only wanted to be with Jesus but also wanted to be like Jesus.

I wonder why most men don’t see Jesus that way today, as someone to be like? How has Jesus lost his status in the world, in our hearts, lost the position of who we want to be? It's one of the greatest spells Satan has ever cast over the world and reinforces daily: making Jesus seem irrelevant or making our becoming like him seem unrealistic, unwanted, or both.

Too often, who we are told we need to be as Christian men is very different from the person we dreamed of becoming. We need to reclaim an accurate image of Jesus in all his goodness, kindness, generosity, and strength, his fierce strength. If he isn’t inviting enough or his life attractive enough or his way engaging enough, then we are in trouble.

In the face of oppression, injustice, suffering, and an ever-lurking distorted religiosity in which service to God replaces intimacy with God, the authentic Jesus must be recovered. To be good kings, we need to experience a Good King. The apostle Paul wrote, “Those whom He foreknew [and loved and chose beforehand], He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son [and ultimately share in His complete sanctification], so that He would be the firstborn [the most beloved and honored] among many believers.” (Romans 8:29 AMP)

As you ponder all this with God today, consider asking him:

Father, would you show me how I viewed Jesus as a boy and how my view of him has changed (or not changed) over the years?

Jesus, open my heart to see you as you TRULY are. What is heroic about you, and if I could be like you, what can I aspire to? Would you show me more of you so that I might become more like you?

Spirit, would you show me who I have modeled my life after throughout my story? Who have been my heroes and what has been their impact on me?