What kind of Christian do I want to be?
By Bishop Gary Mueller
Maybe it’s my age, the fact that I’m in my 40th year of full time ministry or that I’ve been a bishop for a while, but, for some reason, I’ve recently been asking myself, “What kind of Christian do I want to be?”
The interesting thing about my response is that it always begins with the kind of Christian I don’t want to be.
I don’t want to be one kind of Christian in public and another in my private life.
I don’t want to be the kind of Christian who claims he wants to do God’s will, but goes ahead and does what he wants instead.
But most of all, I don’t want to be one of those Christians others look at and say, “Well, if he’s what a Christian is like, there’s no way I want to be one of them.”
I want to be a Christian who actually experiences the love of God, which is more powerful than all my insecurities, failures and mistakes.
I want to be a Christian who accepts Jesus’ invitation to be in relationship with Him as Lord and Savior every moment of every day, and to be his follower all the time.
I want to be a Christian who is becoming the person God dreams for me to be, regardless of what’s going on in my life, because the love of Christ is transforming my attitude, beliefs, temperament and actions from the inside-out.
I want to be a Christian who is head-over-heels in love with Jesus for all of eternity.
But, most of all, I want to be a Christian who so loves other people that I can’t wait to share His love with them.
So how about you? What kind of Christian do you want to be?
Bishop Gary Mueller, vice president
General Commission on United Methodist Men
bishop@arumc.org