My Friend Jesus

A favorite Newsboys song has that title. It’s absolutely brilliant. Except it’s absolutely convicting. Oh yes. Ouch level stuff.

And yet, I love it for that exact reason. It’s timeless (like much in music); it’s daily. Peter Furler sings (he co-wrote the song too) of impatience, vitriol, and fists through walls. You know, everyday stuff for the Jesus person, right? Well, yes.

The point of the song is that we lose patience, not necessarily quickly, rather, just that we lose it. We lose patience, and as the old expression say, we, “lose our religion”. Wonder how that expression came into being? Hmm…..

From the song-

“I’ve got the why and how to start here and now…then my cellphone drops the call…and I spew out vitriol…and as my fist goes through the wall, a voice says, ‘be the change you want to see’.” Yep, ouch.

I often speak in terms of dual railroad tracks as imagery for how life really unfolds. Two things can be true at the same time as we travel along. My experience in church through the years has been that you simply move from one path to another, and that’s true also. See what I mean?

Maybe it would be much simpler for us who want to be like Jesus to just live in His presence laughing, hurting, angry, apologetic, celebratory, silent, and loud. Consider the classic Sunday Christian and Tuesday heathen scenario. Could it be that they’re both in Jesus, it’s just that Tuesday got away from our brother? Of course it could. I know that genuine hypocrisy is a thing, but that’s not the point of this conversation.

If you’re saved, made right with God through Jesus’ work on the cross-then you’re in Jesus. Embrace it. Your good, bad, and ugly. He has.

Our song about My Friend Jesus concludes with this idea…what if everyone talked, loved, and forgave like my friend Jesus? “What a changed world this could be, Starting now, Maybe I can start the change in me.”

I think I will. Today. Tomorrow. And even Wednesday if necessary. Keep calm dear one, go, and do likewise.