What Dave Matthews, Peter and John have in common.

Beside the fact that they are all first names (and one last name) of famous singers. 

Today I read Acts 1-4. In these chapters, we read a lot about Peter and John and how they healed a paraplegic and how he was “jumping and leaping and praising god”. I bet it was hard to live back then because so many people must have thought that they were crazy or something or even demon possessed instead of being filled with the Lord, like they were.  It was crazy to me to hear all about how many people came to the lord because of the things that Peter and John did after Jesus ascended into heaven.  Also, for me, it’s an odd feeling reading about anyone besides Jesus heal and perform miracles. It makes me wonder almost, if I am cut out for that. I mean, I guess God has a mammoth sized arsenal of talents that he allows people to have, but I just often wonder, why is my talent not healing people?  I mean, Peter and John were not even educated! It’s one thing if they went to “medical school” and then healed people, but for them, the people were bewildered by how uneducated these people were.  They are only fishermen and they can do things that I don’t think have been done in hundreds of years. I could be wrong, but... I don’t know.  And, yeah, I guess it does sound a bit selfish to say that “I wish my talent was healing people” when I have many talents already that I can and have used to please God. However, I think if we really want to be better Christians, we often find ourselves wanting and praying to find new ways to please and further the kingdom of God. I think to devout Christians, the idea of being able to heal people is a lot like my want to be Dave Matthews. He’s got a great voice and has a fantastically amazing band and, it is for that reason that I want to be him. How many people feel this way about Peter and John? In more ways than one, Peter and John were the ones that all Christians for the future were going to try to exemplify and for good reason too. All twelve disciples and apostles were amazing people of God and just as in any part of life, we want to emulate the people who we see as “doing it right”. In marching band, our drum instructor, Tim Rarrick would say that we want to be like the Cadets drum line. Tim even went as far to take us to a Cadets rehearsal so we could see exactly the kind of thing we were trying to be like. This is because these people were the best of the best and because of that, we wanted to be like them. Who as Christians is our Cadets?  Who are we trying to emulate? Is trying to emulate someone a good thing? To each his own I suppose. As Christians, we want to be just like Jesus. My Prayer this week is that I can be more and more like Jesus and even like Peter and John in every part of my life.

Prayer- “Lord, please help me this week to be more like you. You have the power to heal all parts of my life that are not how you want them to be. I know that with your help, together we can overcome the problems in my life. I give my life over to you because I know that I cannot do it alone.  Thank you for your love and thank you for your son. ”