If you stare at an object for several seconds, particularly one that is brightly colored, when you look away you may see a residual image but in the opposite color. It doesn’t last long and the image fades away but for a moment whatever you see is affected by the thing you were looking at before. Sometimes perspectives change with age. Things that used to be punishments – staying at home, not going to a party, heading to bed early – are things you look forward to later in life. That happens to all (or most) of us as time goes by. Then there are dramatic life-changing events; a near death experience, a car accident or a long hospital stay that forces us to reconsider what is important. Ice cream may taste sweeter or the embrace of a loved one may be incredibly significant whereas before those things were just ordinary. Some events in life, for better or worse, profoundly change us.

When you look at Jesus everything else looks different. My dad often said that after becoming a Christian he still drank as much as he wanted to… he just no longer wanted to. Teresa and I spent nearly a decade at a private Christian boarding school, remotely located far from everything. Long time fans will recall the influence Michael Spencer had on my systematic theology, desire to write and so forth. Before we moved to Kentucky I was acclimated to society in a way that I felt things were “normal” when I went out in public, say to the mall on a Saturday afternoon. After spending several months in a very restrictive environment, in regards to behavior, language, dress code, that kind of thing, I slowly developed a new sense of “normal.” I was re-acclimated to a different environment than I had been used to before, without even realizing it. When we came home to spend a week with family over spring break, I was shocked to see the way middle and high school students dressed and behaved in public. I spent part of the day with my hand over my eyes staring at the ground. I told me wife “everyone here is naked!” In reality they were all dressed the same way they had been before; they used the same language and showed the same public displays of affection. I was the one that had changed. I was a Christian before; conservative, Baptist, church deacon, etc. But after being immersed in a different environment I realized how ungodly the culture at large actually was. Things made me uncomfortable that I had been comfortable with before. Looking at Jesus will do that to you.

When I say “Look at Jesus” I don’t mean literally, not the way Peter was looking at Jesus as he began to walk on the water. He took his eyes off that actual person of Jesus and noticed the wind and waves. We look at Jesus by considering how his teaching is meant to affect our lives on a day to day basis. David wrote in the first Psalm that the righteous meditate on God’s law day and night. That doesn’t mean a plaque of the 10 Commandments hangs on the wall. That means David desired to hear everything that God had to say; he wanted to listen, consider, learn and commit to memory every part of God’s Word. We look at Jesus by reading about the events of his life, learning his teachings, and ultimately having a heart like his. When we spend time with Jesus we will see the world as Jesus sees it. That will result in… part three of this series.

This is part 2 of 3. When you look at Jesus, you will want to show him to someone else. Read part 3 here.