I was a skeptic for most of my twenties - the Christian concept of God seemed authoritarian and petty. Then I started reading stories about ordinary Christians doing extraordinary things. A woman who forgave her husband's affair. A man who left his law career to serve refugees. People who seemed to be reflecting something beautiful and true that I'd never seen before.
I asked one of them - my neighbor, actually - what was driving all that. She said, 'I'm just trying to be like Jesus.' It was so simple it sounded naive. But then she explained what that meant to her - it meant forgiving quickly, giving generously, noticing people nobody else saw. She wasn't trying to earn anything or prove anything. She was literally imitating someone she loved.
That's when the door opened. If God is like Jesus, then God is not what I thought. God is generous and forgiving and attentive in a way that made me want to be like that too. I realized I'd been trying to become a Christian by memorizing doctrine. I should have been trying to become like God by watching what God actually does.
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