Boppart Unfinished

Life as an Ordinary Jesus Follower
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-3-417-22854-0
Verlag: R.Brockhaus
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 240 Seiten

Adventure, everyday life, quirks, incompleteness, decisions, a two-thirds Jesus, God's perspective, normality, transformation and discipleship are just a few keywords of 'Unfinished. Life as an Ordinary Jesus Follower'. Be a passionate follower of Jesus - and still be yourself. Come along on this challenging and exciting journey further into the vast landscape of discipleship.

Andreas »Boppi« Boppart ist Missionsleiter von Campus für Christus Schweiz und gefragter Referent. Als Autor von Büchern wie »Unfertig« steht er für authentischen und nachlebbaren Glauben. Zusammen mit seiner Frau und seinen 4 Töchtern lebt er mit einer weiteren Familie gemeinschaftlich im Kanton Zürich. Er träumt groß, denkt laut und liebt einen weiten Horizont.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Boppart, Andreas

Leseproben

[ Zum Inhaltsverzeichnis ]

2 MY 2/3 JESUS

Since my Nathanael experience, my faith in Jesus has become inseparable from practical discipleship. Following Jesus faithfully in everyday life means that sacrifice is part of the deal. That might sound tough and unappealing to some, but I’m finding it to be profound and liberating as I live it out. I cannot follow Jesus if I’m not ready to give up my assumed right to decide the path of my life. True discipleship requires complete surrender to His leadership. This is an unpopular stance, but it is the only appropriate response to the claim God has on my life. He is the only One who has a legitimate right over my life.

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

If anyone has the right to direct my feet and decide my path, then it’s the Almighty, because He paid for those feet with His own life. If anyone is allowed to use my hands to help others and show His love, then it’s He, because my hands are His. My life belongs to Him – I belong to Him lock, stock and barrel. Jesus didn’t just pay the price for my checkered past and buy me an eternal future when He died on the cross, He also bought me in the here and now. What else can I do except give myself over fully to Him – my life, my abilities and my time? Everything belongs to Him, it all comes from Him and it finds ultimate fulfillment in Him.

Discipleship is actually quite simple. During my service in the Swiss Army, I was in the Avalanche Squad. You should have seen all the wide-eyed tourists looking into the sky when we headed toward an alpine summit in a Super-Puma helicopter and jumped out into the deep snow just like James Bond. Well, that’s the end of the James Bond comparison! Instead of strapping on our skis and flying down the mountainside through deep powder at breakneck speed, leaving avalanche-triggering explosive charges in our wake, we usually just headed straight for the closest mountaintop restaurant. You can imagine how important it was to keep lines of communication open from one valley to the next by securing the relay point on the mountaintop. Making sure that the restaurants didn’t fall into enemy hands was a big part of our duties (whoever the enemy was supposed to be).

Whenever we did get the chance to go on a ski tour (i.e. hiking up the mountain using specially prepared skis lined with synthetic animal pelts to give traction for climbing through the snow and then skiing down pristine, unprepared slopes as a reward for your efforts), it wasn’t the guy with the highest rank who took the lead but the one who knew the area like the back of his hand. The rest of the squad followed in his tracks, especially when going through precarious territory. It really was a matter of life and death. In the same way, following Jesus means staying close to Him, following in His footsteps. The key question is: Who is leading the way in your life? Whose footsteps are you stepping in? What version of Jesus are you following? It is essential that we know whom we are following and why!

I realized that I often see Jesus through my own personal “faith-lens” that only shows about two-thirds of the whole picture at any one time. I never get a complete perspective of His character. This means that my faith tends to be skewed in one direction or another. I can only see what I think He might be. Getting a fresh perspective is always a challenge because my lens is shaped by my own personality, my experiences, the kind of church I belong to, my own preferences and even the culture I live in. But discipleship is only powerful when I follow the complete Jesus – and not just my favorite two-thirds of Jesus!

A PARTIAL FAITH

If I misspell my destination when I type it into my car’s GPS, I can miss the mark by miles – or even end up in another state! So many people miss the mark when it comes to faith: they have the wrong view of God. Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Unfortunately, his observation hits the nail on the head, because so many people follow a partial Jesus.

What kind of Jesus do you believe in? Is your Jesus completely humanized, some kind of sandal-wearing hippie social worker or philosopher who stares meaningfully into the distance while spouting edifying words of wisdom? Or is He a strict, scowling policeman who makes sure that your life stays within the “Zero Fun Zone”? Or a mini-Che Guevara, a rebel leader who fights against the powers that be, looking to overthrow the establishment? Perhaps you follow an exuberant pacifist who spends His time sliding daisies into gun barrels, scrawling peace signs on every available surface, convinced that love will get everybody into heaven? Maybe your Jesus is the opposite extreme – so God-like that there’s nothing human about Him?

And what about that cute baby Jesus from the Christmas nativity – the perfect child with the shining face who never grows up? Some people make Him so other-worldly that His feet never touch the ground – how could He ever understand my mundane life? He just circles in the stratosphere like a satellite orbiting the earth. This Jesus is like a metrosexual Hollywood leading man with a lion’s mane of hair who passes gas that smells like an air freshener. Others suck out every ounce of His divinity with some kind of spiritual vacuum pump, leaving a flattened, historical philosopher Jesus – like an empty tube of toothpaste, lacking substance. Both extremes make Jesus equally irrelevant to our lives.

Our versions of Jesus seem harmless at first glance. Some personality traits are easier to like than others. The ultra-trendy believe in a stylish “yeah-man” Jesus. If you tend to be legalistic, then maybe you’ll like the “I’m-watching-you!” Jesus who points His finger sternly every time you step out of line. For those who focus more on the depressing and frustrating side of life, you may follow the “no-way!” Jesus. The martyrs among us follow after the “no-pain, no-gain” Jesus. Over-achievers chase the elusive “go-all-the-way” Jesus who constantly pushes them to do more. Lovers of comfort and affluence look for the “genie-in-a-bottle” Jesus, who grants us three wishes and instantly gives whatever we ask. The average post-modern European enjoys an egocentric, prosperity-driven “more-and-more” Jesus. And many, who feel stifled by an overpowering and all-knowing God, prefer that manger-bound baby who stays small forever, the “oh-how-cute!” Jesus.

It’s possible for our notion of Jesus to simply be wrong. More often, though, we just have a one-sided view of Him – and we’ve fallen in love with our favorite 2/3 of the whole Jesus, the version that best suits our own personality and life story. If I concentrated only on the whip-wielding Jesus who was determined to rid the Temple of anyone and everyone who was dishonoring it (see Matthew 21:12) and ignored other Bible passages where Jesus speaks words dripping with enough compassion to fill buckets, I’d probably get the wrong impression of Him. For me, Jesus would just be an irate brute with a short fuse. Sure, He had that righteous anger side, but you can really only understand that aspect in light of the complete Jesus, the One who died on the cross for the very people who nailed His hands and feet to it.

When we begin our quest to see more of Jesus, it’s good to be aware of our innate tendency to settle for the 2/3, “my-personal-favorite” version of Jesus. We need to realize that we will never see the complete Jesus until we are standing face-to-face with Him. Our faith is and remains incomplete. That’s why I’m able to enjoy the adventure of getting to know Jesus better and better as I discover more about Him. For a long time I was completely blind to the side of Jesus that took care of people’s practical needs and helped them in such a loving way. Then I reached my point of no return. I recognize that blindness right now as I’m writing this book during a sabbatical with my family in the Philippines. We’re staying next door to a slum, and there are Christians here who look after the people there, helping them in simple, practical ways like offering classes for the kids.

At the same time, there are other Christians who don’t feel the need to help those people at all. They are convinced that their poverty is more often than not the result of laziness. I am not criticizing anyone’s opinion, and I certainly don’t want to judge, but I’m pretty sure they are following their own 2/3 Jesus, just like I used to. The complete Jesus even brought Judas, the one who betrayed Him, into His inner circle of friends, accepting him as a full member of the group, even trusting him with the money despite the fact that Jesus knew Judas had trouble with financial management. I would have given the guy a piece of my mind, but Jesus gave him a piece of the proverbial pie, welcoming him into the group and even washing his feet along with the other disciples as a gesture of love and servant leadership. Unfortunately, we are often more influenced by our culture,...

Über Autor(innen)

Boppart, Andreas
Andreas »Boppi« Boppart ist Missionsleiter von Campus für Christus Schweiz und gefragter Referent. Als Autor von Büchern wie »Unfertig« steht er für authentischen und nachlebbaren Glauben. Zusammen mit seiner Frau und seinen 4 Töchtern lebt er mit einer weiteren Familie gemeinschaftlich im Kanton Zürich. Er träumt groß, denkt laut und liebt einen weiten Horizont.