"Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters." - Aslan at the beginning of creation of Narnia (C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew)

Well here we are: awake. But what next? Love? Why follow waking with Love? Why not follow it with think, or speak--or consume stimulants? In the last installment of Life Beyond The Lyrics, I started at the beginning with "Awake." (You can catch up here.)

Love God and love others. The greatest commandment doesn't get much easier to say. However, it seems it is the hardest to live out. We were not designed to love. Yes, it sounds strange, but if we were designed in God's image, and God is love, then it is easy to see that we were not merely designed to love but rather to be love.

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ
Why do you look so much like the world?

You see, being a Christian isn't about living by a bunch of set rules, going to church on Sunday, and watching repeats of Duck Dynasty. Although, if you check a bunch of our social media feeds or even walk into a Christian book store, you would think that is what being a Christian entails. Being a Christian literally means being a little Christ. So, just like Dr. Evil had Mini Me, Jesus has us. (Cue screams of "Heretic!" now.)

This area for love of my neighbors has been crushing me lately. It has been the greatest challenge to my Christian walk since I made a decision to follow Christ 19 years ago. It almost feels that only now do I understand what following Christ and declaring His name as my own actually means. Even as I write this, I cannot get the homeless man's eyes out of my mind. 

'Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land?
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand?

He was just sitting there, outside of the farmer's market, at the same place he sits every week. I drove by him so many times through the winter and always saw him there, just sitting on the cold, red, brick, sidewalk--sitting there and selling his newspapers in order to earn enough money to get through the next day.

I had walked by him so many times before this, knowing he was there, but not knowing a man was there, merely knowing that there was a tripping hazard that I needed to watch out for. But this Saturday was different. As we drove by to drop my daughters at their ballet class, there he was. But this time, I saw a man--a man no different than myself, a man for whom Jesus died.

It was different, it was as though, at that moment, I understood what love was. Love is not merely an emotion, but a constant action upon our hearts by God that we must turn into action. I stopped, I talked to the man, I crouched to his level and looked him in the eyes, and those eyes have been burned into my mind. I spoke to him, told him that God loved him, that he was beautiful. I forgot about the bustling market crowd. I made contact with a man that God loves and cares for.

And who is this that you follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side
Or fall down and worship at His holy feet? Holy, yeah

Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part?
Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him

'Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable
So which one do you want to be?

I don't tell this story to boast of some amazing work that I did, because in reality, I didn't do much. I allowed the love of Jesus to be shown. I allowed myself to love before thinking. I allowed myself to be love to one of God's creation, to a man that many have forgotten, but his Father would never forget.

Christendom is filled with songs about love but as I searched through the annals of Christian music I couldn't find quite the right one. Then I realized it isn't about love in and of itself. It is about following the greatest example of life that was ever shown. It was about reflecting Jesus. Being a little Christ and one of the best answers was Todd Agnew's "My Jesus." And although we've walked through a majority of the song already, it is the culmination in the last verse and the bridge.

'Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud
And I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I wanna be like my Jesus
I wanna be like my Jesus
I wanna be like my Jesus, yeah
I wanna be like my Jesus, oh, oh, oh

Not a poster child for American prosperity, but like my Jesus
You see I'm tired of living for success and popularity
I wanna be like my Jesus, but I'm not sure what that means
To be like You Jesus

'Cause You said to live like You, to love like You
But then You died for me
Can I be like You, Jesus?
I wanna be like You, Jesus
I wanna be like my Jesus

I am still struggling with the idea of loving my neighbor, it was easier for me to talk to that homeless man that day than it is for me to approach my neighbor and invite him to church or even bring up the thought of Jesus at work to my co-workers. It doesn't stop me from growing and wanting to be like Jesus though. I just need to be love, and do it without thinking because I haven't had a chance to do that yet.