Last weekend fpStudents High School students from both campuses experienced a phenomenal event called Fall Retreat.  It was a joyous occasion where students had the opportunity to climb a huge inflatable Iceberg and be catapulted off a massive Blob into a lake.  They sweated it out on the Competition field and got covered from head to toe in soap, lemonade and flour! And of course, they spent a lot of time simply hanging out, as high school students tend to do.  But these activities paled in comparison to what the students learned during this 2 day adventure.

The theme of the retreat was IMITATE, and over the course of 3 large group sessions, we helped students discover 4 major truths about the way we live life.  I’d like to share them with you now, and my prayer is that they will shift your attitude and outlook as it has similarly affected many students in the past 2 weeks.

1. WE ALL IMITATE. Whether it is a family member, athlete or actor, we all have the desire to imitate others.  It’s ingrained in us to such a degree that we don’t even choose to do it, we just imitate naturally.  It’s not a bad thing, either, simply a truth to life.
2. WE WERE CREATED TO IMITATE. So, if we all imitate, God had to have designed us to this this on purpose. Genesis 1:27 shows us that, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” God intentionally made us in His image from the beginning.  Skip over to the New Testament and we see things kick up a notch. Ephesians 5:1 says, “Be imitators of God…” which means that we are CREATED in His IMAGE and CALLED to be IMITATORS.
3. WE WERE CREATED TO IMIATE JESUS. Once Jesus landed on earth, humanity was handed the perfect example of how we should interact with the world around us. Philippians 2:5 gives us the specific mandate, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” Now, none of this should be a shock…God made us in His image and wants us to live our lives as imitators of His Son. Got it.  So, how do we do this?  How do we re-align our lives to the selfless attitude that defines Jesus Christ?
4. YOU CAN ONLY IMITATE JESUS TO THE LEVEL THAT YOU KNOW HIM. Let it sink in a bit.  If your relationship with Jesus is shallow, so will your imitation of Him. If you only talk to Him or think about Him on Sunday/Wednesday, then your ability to mirror His attitude will be greatly hindered. But if you make it your goal to chase after Him as passionately as you can, you have a much greater chance of being mistaken for Him!

So, my question for you today is…how well do you know Him? Are you attempting to imitate someone you know of, but have no relationship with? How would your family answer that question about you?