Do you have an account profile?
It’s hard to say “no” to such a question these days, but many of us don’t give a lot of thought to what our public profile, or public persona, really is in today’s world. So let me be one who today asks you another question where a “no” answer might come easier.
Is it okay if someone else goes in and edits your account profile for you?
Most of us want to edit our own profiles, don’t you suppose? We don’t trust others to just go into our account and start updating info on our behalf. Even those who know us best may get something wrong.
So let’s imagine together that the book we call the Bible is at least purported to be the public profile of the One we call God. Ever thought of it that way before?
I do.
I think of it that way a lot.
And I think of how God has been profiled within the Bible as a whole. Jealous. Angry. Vindictive. Controlling. Possessive. Punitive. Rigid. Demanding. Judging. Someone to fear. Hidden in the burning bush or the dark cloud or the bright pillar of fire. One who is out there or up there. The proverbial “man upstairs.”
But what if that profile was edited by someone else? Not God Himself.
Does God not have a right to edit his own profile? Should God not trust himself to edit and update his profile more than, say, some ancient kings and prophets?
When I read the words of Jesus in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” or when I read the story of the transfiguration as reported among the synoptics (Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36) and notice that Moses and Elijah (representing the Law and the Prophets) disappear and only Jesus remains as the One to be listened to, I find myself thinking that Jesus alone has the administrative authority to go in and edit God’s profile. God updates his own profile through Jesus. God trusts Jesus alone. And asks us to do likewise.
The word “Christian” has taken on a profile of its own over the centuries from when it was first used to describe the “little Christs” who followed in the way of Jesus during the first century of our common era. I suppose there are as many editions and profiles of a Christian as there are Christians out there. Each Christian seems to trust his or her own ability to update such a personal account profile.
Not me.
I would call myself a Christian only because I trust Jesus alone to go in and update my own profile. The same Jesus that God trusts to edit his own. The one who knows me well enough to get it right. Knows me better than I know myself. Knows me better than Moses, David, Solomon, or the Prophets of ancient times. Knows me like God knows me. Loves me like God loves me. I’m a Christian because I trust Jesus alone to edit my profile. The Jesus who is good enough for God is good enough for me.
I have to wonder something today. Is it possible that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, and the way to best understand you, too? The way for others to see you as entirely lovable, as a Good Samaritan, as one who is more loving and more “neighbor” than other people have ever realized? The way for your profile to reveal that you are a good and kind and wise child of God given to loving influence rather than fearful control in this world of 2019?
You see, I not only trust Jesus to edit God’s own profile today. I trust him to edit mine.
And I trust him to edit yours. My neighbor. Your profile as much as my own. A person of eternal importance in God’s family of humanity. That’s you. That’s your profile. Edited even better than you could do……….when you edit your own profile.
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