I’d like to end my thoughts on following a Jesus way with this:
You will fail.
You may try hard to deconstruct your tangled view of following Jesus from its web of politics, economics, legalism and personal baggage. You will fail.
You may try hard to set a rhythm of life that facilitates a more Christ-like way. You will fail.
You may dedicate yourself to living every moment for others, to glorifying God with every word and deed. You may live out his teachings – feed the poor, love your neighbor, turn the other cheek – but it doesn’t matter. You will fail.
This is the beautiful truth that separates following Christ from all philosophies and religions. If you espouse a philosophy, whether the teachings of Socrates, Lao Tzu, DIY Punk Rock-ness, or Oprah Winfrey, it is up to you to do your best to succeed. When you fail, you will be seen as a traitor to the cause. If you practice a religion, your imminent failure means you’ll be trapped in the Karmic cycle or in danger of the fires of hell.
Basing your life on a Jesus way is the best way to live. You should do your best to follow it. But you won’t. Churches should be groups of people that practice this way together. But the Churches will fail.
And that’s ok.
It was the plan all along.
This earth is not eternal. It will be replaced with a perfect one. It will have the population and complexity of a city, yet the beauty, simplicity and presence of God that was in that first garden. God will be with us in a whole new way, and he will wipe away our tears. That is the Kingdom Come we pray for.
A Jesus Way is a reflection of that new earth on the present one. A pale, cloudy and broken reflection. But the world to come is so far beyond today’s in its perfection that even our failed attempts to live it out bring peace and beauty to the world we live in.
So here’s the surprising truth we find at the end of it all: Failing at living a Jesus way is truly an incomparably beautiful way to live.
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