Secondary Sources

My wife showed me this quote and I started laughing:

Someone’s counselor knows all about you.

I know one therapist who knows all about me. And while they know all about me, I have only briefly met them. Their understanding of who I am has been established through the vantage point of another individual. They have created a set of assumptions of how I think and interact, based on the interpretation of another individual.

Often times, before an individual places their faith in Jesus, they will do the same thing. They will look to understand who Jesus is by looking to one of his followers. The problem is, if they look to us, they might only see who Jesus is through a secondary source. I know that my reflection of Jesus is marred by all of the ripples that I create. Ripples of selfishness and pride. Ripples of bad theology and lack of discipline. Ripples of arrogance and exclusivity. I am challenged by Paul’s instruction to the church in Corinth: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Let’s calm the ripples in our reflection, at the same time we point people to experience and know the true source of our hope. So if a counselor were to know all about us, it would be to know all about Jesus.