Christianity is about walking daily here in this dirt and this filth and this wreck, alongside a Mighty Beauty. There is a great Some One who who wants to live our ordinary life with us. We could live in awe of Him. Of the One who transforms us from the inside out. As we rub shoulders with Him, keep our eyes on Him, ask Him for His thoughts and do the sort of things that He did, we actually become like Him.

That is compelling to me. It’s the kind of stuff that ignites fire in my bones and gives me hope for the world.

What if?

What if the people in our house walked with Jesus here in the grime and learned to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves? What if the me and the folks at my church walked with Jesus throughout the week, and not just on Sundays, and learned to love the other churches as much as we loved ourselves? What if the people in charge down at the White House and the media learned to love others just as much as they loved themselves? What sort of world would this become?

Maybe. Just maybe it would be a world full of the Spirit of Jesus. The kind of place that emanates love and joy. Down the backstreets and in the ally ways and at the gas stations and the Wal-mart parking lots. With the kinds of people who bleed patience, kindness, and goodness over at the school office and in the cafeterias and in the library and at the bank and down at the community centers. With the kinds of leaders and influencers who sweat out gentleness and self-control in the box offices and behind the pulpits.

What if Jesus really did know the best way?

What if Jesus really is the way?

I wonder these things.