How to: Be Like Jesus

Today we started climbing Mt. Arbel. That was a very steep and tiring climb. Then we went to tabgah where it is assumed that the story of the feeding of the 5,000 took place. Then we hiked up to a location that is around the location of the sermon on the mount and we recited the entire passage of the sermon on the mount. After we hiked down the small hill along the lake to Caphernum where Jesus lived. After we took a boat ride from Tiberias to En Gev and had a great Sea Food dinner before coming back to our hotel for the night.

As you may or may not be able to imagine, every day in Israel has been super fantastic; filled with history, stories, emotions, fun, and lots and lots of sun. But today was one of my favorite days. We spent a lot of our day telling stories about Jesus and his ministry, how he spent his time here on earth, and what it means to follow Jesus. I really enjoyed focusing on what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus, and what it means to be a follower of Christ. So what better way to show that example than playing a little game of follow-the-leader? We all followed Ben around (pretending that he was Jesus), and we were the disciples attempting to do whatever he did. In the end, it ended up that the people towards the front of the line were able to keep up pretty well and repeat his actions, but the people at the end of the line ended up with almost a completely different idea. That just really reinforced the idea that what we do matters: every post, every tweet, the way we celebrate our 21st birthday, who we spend our time with—it all matters, because as a follower of Jesus you never know who is following you too. And then, we ended up on a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee telling the story of Jesus walking on the water to his disciples. They were all hanging on in this boat together, and terrified thinking Jesus was a ghost. (I guess I probably would be freaked out a little too!) But Peter steps up and calls out to Jesus, and then He invites Peter to come on the water to him. I can just imagine Peter, being a disciple of Jesus, being like, hey, if my Rabbi is doing this, I want to do this too! So Peter gets out of his boat, steps out on the water, and is immediately consumed with doubt and fear…and begins to sink. Jesus immediately reaches out catches him and asks Peter why he doubted. Great question Jesus….Why do any of us doubt?! If we want to live a life following Jesus, if we want to be like Him, then we have to put the fear aside. We have to stop doubting. We have to step out of the boat, take risks do something exciting, and have the faith to back it up. If we don’t believe we can be like Jesus, then we won’t be. So just like I’m going to challenge myself, I’ll invite you to do this too; let’s step out of our small, dinky boats, and let’s do something crazy and ridiculous. Let’s follow our Leader.

—Lindsay Sal

Hi mom (and others, I suppose)!
Today in this beautiful and Holy Land, we had the privilege to learn more about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We discovered the word talmid: a follower that spends every moment of every day trying to mimic the actions of their rabbi. We talked about how absurd it is that Jesus called his disciples, rather than the disciples asking his permission as per usual in a rabbi and talmid relationship. We stood along the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee- in a location that very well could have been the same place that Simon, Andrew, James, and John were standing when Jesus called them to the life they’d always dreamed of.

The group dispersed after our lesson, taking pictures of the gushing spring feeding this beautiful body of water. In this moment, I was struck with an obvious, but suddenly meaningful thought, saying to Ben, “This was 100% THE most significant thing that EVER happened to these boys”. And Ben replied, “Yup. And it’s the same for us today”.

Wow. Our Savior is calling out to us, saying “You- Yes, you. I believe YOU have what it takes to be like me! Come and follow!”… And now I am faced with the chance to drop all of my nets, leave behind all that I have, all my family and friends, and start off in the dust of my rabbi. I have the chance to follow his footsteps, watch his interactions, and intently listen to every word that he says. How great it is that we have the Word of the Lord to aid us in this endeavor. How else would I learn more about my rabbi if not for this book?

I have always been someone who jumps at the chance to take initiative, and I have been blessed with many opportunities in leadership. However, I began to realize today that, regardless of the gifts I have given: BEFORE I can be a good leader of anything, I need to be a good follower of Jesus.

—Julia Stejskal