DON'T JUST BE A STUPID SHEEP
What makes mJa member Ian Hunt boil with rage...

So what do sheep do? They follow. They see what others do - and do it as well. And face it, some people are more like sheep than sheep - and that is what this is about.

One of the most amazing things about Christian faith is the fact that you can have a personal relationship with God. Yep, that's right: 1-to-1 with the Maker. Amazing, huh?

But some people completely miss this and live their lives trying to be someone else. Why? They see someone else, and what that person has with God seems better than what they have - so they try to have someone else's relationship with God. They live the Christian life "second hand". They try to become that other person.

Don't get me wrong: it's important to have good Christian role models. Let's have those who we can imitate and who can disciple us. Let's want to be like them; but we don't want to actually be them.

However hard you try, you're never going to be someone else; you can never have someone else's relationship with God.

What's more, sometimes a role model might lose the plot. I've seen it happen and it's always difficult, always painful. But for people who are trying to be that person it usually marks the end of the road for them, too. They fall, all too often, with the one they idolised.

The people who were simply learning from the role model may find it painful - but, more often than not, they learn another lesson through the whole thing, making them stronger in God!

Listen up - God loves you for who you are and wants a relationship with you! Imitate others, sure. But don't try and be someone else. Just be you - and love God.