Hey all you men, dads and husbands out there. They’re watching you.
Your kids. The kids in your cul-de-sac. The kids you coach. The kids on your kid’s team when you’re screaming at your kid on the soccer field, or buying the whole team popsicles after losing a tough game. The kids at church. The younger men at church sitting with you in meetings, ushering with you, shoveling mulch with you, grilling hot dogs with you at the church picnic.
Believe me, they’re watching. What are they seeing? Who are they seeing? Jesus?
There’s a song by Christian artists Phillips, Craig and Dean called “I Want to Be Just Like You.” It is a dad’s prayer. One line says: “I know that they’ll learn from the things that they see, and the Jesus they find will be the Jesus in me.”
Or to quote Scripture, a great man of God named Paul, who wrote half of the New Testament, said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Ego? No. Humble confidence. Faith that follows Jesus Christ. “Lord, I want to be just like you.”
Paul followed Jesus Christ, that’s for sure. More than he followed a career or any kids, more than he followed a YouTube channel about the best meat to BBQ or his notifications about fluctuating markets.
Paul loved Jesus, and it showed.
A group of powerful men didn’t like that he loved Jesus so much and lived his life for Jesus, so they got together and threw him in a dark, dank prison where thugs beat him bloody. A jailer watched. Probably cheered. And watched some more.
Paul and the other man with him who loved Jesus didn’t retaliate with flexing their macho muscles or foul mouthed cursing.
They prayed, probably for their tormentors including the jailer. They sang worship songs out loud (with no musicians or MP3’s to help). The jailer watched some more. Listened. Started coming to some conclusions, before the entire dungeon started convulsing in an earthquake that broke off the chains and busted open the dungeon doors.
Now, jailers had only one job. Keep prisoners in prison. And he’d failed. With no prison, there’d be no prisoners. Roman law called for him to suffer the prisoners’ sentence instead of them, if they escaped.
But as the dust settled in the darkness, Paul shouted, “We’re all here!” What? Why? Because that’s what Jesus did, and Paul followed Jesus. “Lord, I want to be just like you.”
PRAYER: Jesus, I know I’m not you. But I want to be like you. More. Every day. Forgive me when I settle for being less than you know I can be. By your grace, develop me to be more than just a follower, but a leader. Amen.
FURTHER STUDY: What happened to the jailer? Read the rest of the story in Acts 16:23-34.