It was one of those cold days in Canada, probably 10° below zero. I was headed for my next class--doing my best to keep from falling on the ice--when I ran into one of the married students whom I had met earlier. He and his wife had invited me to their living quarters to eat supper with them. It was a real treat: down-home cooking for at least one meal rather than the institutional food we usually faced. I had a sense that he and his wife had been praying for me as Bible College students do. He stopped me, handed me a small piece of paper with some writing on it and, looking right at me, said something to me that caught me off guard, “Jesus didn’t have a reputation, not even a spiritual reputation."

I thought, “OK,” but wondered what he was getting at. That evening after supper in the dorm, I looked up the references he’d given me: “Let this mind be in you...but made himself of no reputation...” (Phil 2:5-7a*) This made me stop and think. I reasoned, if Jesus made himself of no reputation that must have included a “spiritual reputation” as well. As I’ve thought about my friend’s statement over and over again through the years, the Holy Spirit has brought other verses to my mind to help me better understand. When Jesus said, “he who has seen Me; has seen the Father;” he continued, “the Father who dwells in Me, does the works.” (John 14:9-10). I finally realized that the reputation that Jesus had was not something he attained in himself but a result of God’s Life in him, and what the Life of God was doing through Him. I came to the conclusion that, like Jesus, my reputation should not be something that I make for myself, but be a result of what God’s Life is doing in and through me. The Apostle Paul described his experience this way, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live; but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Personally, I am relieved. I don’t have to try to be anything special. I can relax and be myself. After all God made me, ME--if you know what I mean. Christians are the only ones that don’t have to struggle to be something. All the struggling doesn’t get you anywhere anyway; it just messes you up. We can just rest and let God be God. He wants to be Himself through you. God made you, YOU.

You’re different--that’s good--but you’re also special. There’s not another person on this earth just like you. There’s nothing wrong with you the way you are. You don’t have to struggle to be “spiritual,” just thank the Lord each morning that He is living in you, and allow Him to live his life through you. He will! He will surprise you with His Resurrection Life. Then, any reputation will be because of Him. God promises, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

*Scripture references to New King James Version.

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