A Person Whom Jesus Was Like

Two or three years ago now I was sitting at my favorite brewery in town enjoying some great beer and delicious Indian food. For the three years that I lived in Grand Rapids most recently this was where you could find me on most every Wednesday night. Most often with the same one or two friends. 

Many nights were spent talking about gripes we each had in our jobs, our take on the latest political or Church scandal, the worlds of Middle Earth, D&D, and Hogwarts, and even the occasional conversation about cats, bathroom renovations, and gardening. I assure you each and every Wednesday surely could have been worthy of further reflection and a blog post or two. However, there was one night in particular that I have been thinking about for a couple of years now. 

I can tell you exactly what table we were sitting at and what I was eating/drinking (this bit isn't too hard since I merely rotated between two food options and two beer preferences each Wednesday). After our normal catch-up on all that was troubling us in life and work since our last Wednesday gathering there came a moment in the conversation where my friend prefaced what came next as potentially heretical...It was in this moment that my friend told me about her grandmother who had just passed away. Specifically, in describing the kind of woman her grandmother was, she said, "she was a woman who Jesus was like." I assured her that this wasn't even close to heretical...and I would know...

So often growing up I was told to consider the question What Would Jesus Do? I can't even begin to tell you how many promotional wristbands etc I had with WWJD on them. But never once was I encouraged to think about how I could live my life in a way that one could say Jesus was like me... I was always told to live my life to be like him...a task I'm not sure I'll ever be able to live up to. 

Somehow being a person for whom Jesus is like seems not only more doable but also seems more admirable and honorable of a goal. Perhaps this is all too prideful and it is heretical, however, what I know with certainty is that if once I'm dead and gone someone, a child, or grandchild, a friend, loved one, or anyone who knows me is able to say, "Mike was a man who Jesus was like" it would certainly be enough!

I never met this friend's grandmother and I'm not entirely sure I ever learned her name. Nevertheless, I'm confident that she is someone I won't soon forget.