That creep! My true character "leaks"?

Character is what I feel or do without thinking. I may say, “I didn’t mean that,” but something in me did mean it. My true character “leaks” when I’m not trying to impress anyone or when I don’t carefully plot how I should act in order to reflect Christ. When someone cuts me off on the freeway, my true character is reflected by whether I say, “That creep!” or, “Bless you.” (Or the intermediate step: “Bless you—you certainly need it!”) 

As we “put on Christ,” we love people without trying. Compassion flows. How jarring Jesus must have been for his disciples. What flowed out of them was so different from what flowed out of Jesus. Consider these contrasts: ignoring kids to move on to important matters/blessing kids as an important matter (Matthew 19:13-15); sending people away to buy their food/checking to see if God had an adventurous idea for feeding them (Matthew 14:15-21); conniving about who will take charge in the future/simply serving the persons in front of him (Matthew 20:20-28); hurrying to heal an important person’s relative/pausing to speak to a woman who had already sneaked her healing from Jesus but needed his listening gaze (Matthew 9:18-22); running off with Greek-speaking Jews to stay out of harm from the Pharisees/staying in Jerusalem and facing death (John 12:20-33). 

If I’d been one of Jesus’ disciples, I would have rolled my eyes at him so many times. This people-focused, purpose-oriented way of life that simply flowed out of him would have baffled me—but intrigued me as well. 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Ponder what you admire most about Jesus. (If needed, skim through one of the Gospels and recall the things he did.) What does it show about his character? Tell Jesus why you admire this quality about him. Ask him to show you what it would look like if this sort of character flowed from you as you decided to let the Trinitarian presence make its home in you (see John 14:23). Ask Jesus to help you become more intentional about having that sort of heart.