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The Gospel of Mark
Be Like Jesus
Mark 8:34–35
Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. — Mark 8:34–35
I have a love-hate relationship with this passage of scripture. It is jam packed with great wisdom and understanding about the kingdom of God and it is misused to so often within church culture.
Yet, I believe there is something very simple that we can learn from how we experience Jesus and how we can live our lives. And it reminds me of something from my childhood.
Growing up in the nineties, there was this commercial selling a sports drink with the great NBA basketball player, Michael Jordan. Their slogan for the advertisement was “Be Like Mike.”
In the ads, Michael Jordan is playing with a bunch of kids on a basketball court and they cut to scene of him playing in the NBA. Then they cut back to kids trying to copy his moves on the court.
The message is clear, drink this drink, play like Michael Jordan. And while I was thinking about this scripture, those ads popped into my mind because I…
