Roles of Living Life

We have many roles and hats that we wear each and every day. We are parents, teachers, sons and daughters, pastors, cops, doctors, spouses, and the list goes on and on. Living life is about doing as much as being. As we live life, we live out our various roles and callings. But is it me or He that must be these roles?

Living Life Roles

I contend that every role I have been ascribed from son to shepherd, artist to minister, is a role and assignment for Jesus not me. Are you a husband or wife? It is Christ who intends to live out your life with your spouse. He is to be the husband to your wife, and the wife for your husband. Do I have brothers or sisters? Jesus desires to be the brother to my siblings. This is simply amazing.

As we enter into the holiday season, most of us have family roles going to eleven. And it is the Lord who wants to meet them in me. He wants to interact through me, as me. I get the opportunity to witness Him in me interacting with them. I get the privilege of knowing Christ more as He performs my life and relationships. My desired nearness to Him is brought about as I witness He in me. Jesus walks the earth in me.

Here is the kicker. Even when I have a work holiday, He wants to live out that holiday through me. My rest is still about Him not me. He is my life in totality and He is the living out of my life. I can’t say that I am an expert in this, but it is my choice. And even our place of inability to live in the Exchanged Life is His to face, not mine.

Living Life in Christ

What then stands between me and experiencing Christ in me? It’s my preference for self over Him. If my desire is to know Him above all other knowledge, I will give Him the preeminence. He will have the position to perform while I witness. Do I desire to experience Him in my vacation or am I just trying to take a break for myself? It isn’t as if Jesus doesn’t want me to have rest. Actually, the exchanged life is all about rest. If I seek the adventure of knowing Him in my holiday, I will experience Him. It’s all about preference and His will. My life is always about my will; His life is always about His.

During this holiday I am choosing to witness Jesus’ Will and Life rather than mine. I want to leave this season knowing more of who He is as opposed to increasing my knowledge of what I feel, think or am. There is no real mystery to me, my life, or my happenings. Since we all have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), mankind is dull. But Christ in me is fascination and wonder. As I watch Him do what I am completely incapable of doing, I love Him more. I feel near to Him because Jesus is me. As Jennifer says, “You can’t be closer to someone than for them to live in your own body.” This is my choice for the holidays!