“You are blessed whenever you follow my example.”

John 13:17 (GW)

Everybody has an example they follow. Whose example are you following?

If you don’t decide who your model will be in life, then other people will decide it for you, like the media, culture, your friends, or your coworkers. People will often try to tell you how to live your life.

But God is the only one who should be telling you how to live your life. And the only perfect example is Jesus Christ.

I know many people who, after turning 40, discovered that they had based their life on an inconsistent and ineffective model. At 40 years of age, they were discouraged, divorced, depressed, and lonely. Why? Because they were looking at the wrong example.

One friend said, “I was climbing the ladder of success. But when I got to the top, I realized the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall! I invested all that time in the wrong thing.” 

There was a time when I was a young man and I didn’t want to follow Jesus Christ because I thought he was kind of a wimp. I bought into the stereotype of a Jesus with white robes and long, flowing hair, who never raised his voice and picked flowers as he walked the hills around Jerusalem.

If that’s the way Jesus really was, then how did he get fishermen to drop their nets and follow him? How could a wimp have the power to feed more than 5,000 people with a basket of bread and fish and the influence to upset the status quo of the whole Roman Empire?

Jesus wasn’t a wimp. He wasn’t a lot of things we’ve made him out to be in our minds. He was the most counter-cultural revolutionary you could imagine, who led perfectly with grace and compassion and justice. It takes humility to follow that kind of Savior.

Everywhere Jesus went, he told people to follow him. He never said to follow a principle or a program or even a religion—but a person. He said, “You are blessed whenever you follow my example” (John 13:17 GW). 

Following Jesus involves a relationship. God wants you to know him personally! He sent Jesus so you could know him and love him for exactly who he is—the perfect example for you to follow.