Writes of Passage: Just put one foot in front of the other

Back in the 1960s a gentlemen by the name of Frank Abagnale became famous for pulling off some pretty crazy and bold imitations.

For example, according to Pan American Airlines, Abagnale actually flew more than 1,000,000 miles as a First Officer on more than 250 flights to 26 different countries during a three year period even though he wasn’t a real pilot! Yep, believe it or not, by passing himself off as a real life pilot, Abagnale actually got to sit in the cockpit of various airliners as a First Officer even though he didn’t have the slightest clue what he was doing

Thankfully, since Abagnale’s job as a “pilot” for Pan American was to move empty planes from one part of the world to another, a term known as deadheading, the seats behind him were always empty. But nonetheless, it’s hard to believe that for three years the guy did such a good job of imitating a pilot no one realized he wasn’t a real one.

Now if such a real life story sounds a bit familiar it’s because Abagnale’s life served as the basis for a popular movie made several years ago called Catch Me if You Can starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.

Of course, while Abagnale used the art of imitation in a negative manner, the Apostle Paul liked to encourage people to be imitators as well but in a good rather than bad way.

Writing to the church of Philippi, Paul encourages believers there to join in imitating him and his own efforts to imitate the life of Christ. You see, for Paul followers of Jesus Christ are tasked with the tough job of trying to imitate Christ in their daily lives. Discipleship means that Christ’s followers are to intentionally set about trying to conform their lives to his life. It means living like Christ, loving like Christ, and being like Christ, until the image in him is actually the very image in us.

After all, as Paul knew all too well, to be like Christ isn’t something we just up and decide one day to do. For to be like Christ, to live and be in the world the way Christ was in it, takes practice and, yes, even some hard work.

To drag ourselves out of bed to go work at the local soup kitchen even when we don’t want to, well, that’s to be about the hard work of conforming our lives to Christ’s. To work on offering forgiveness for the deep wounds that have been inflicted upon us by friends and loved ones, well, that too is to be about the hard work of conforming our lives to Christ’s.

Likewise, so is the decision to strive everyday to live open and grace-filled lives despite the fact that is often the last thing life tends to be — that too is be about trying to conform our lives to Christ’s. And all, such decisions are hardly easy to make, are they?

So we just don’t wake-up one day and decide we’re going to live like Christ. Nope, the life of Christ is something that has to be worked at and practiced every single day of our lives.

Folks that are involved with AA will tell you new participants are often told “to fake it til you make it.” Far from being disingenuous, such advice is given to newcomers because those who have been around AA for a while know recovery often requires newcomers doing a whole lot of things they might, initially, not be very good at.

So when a newcomer says, for example, that he or she has no idea what a prayer life is like or even how to pray, that person is told to pray anyway. For it is in the very act of praying that the person begins to learn how to indeed pray.

And as long as they keep at it, as long as they keep whispering to God their fears, failings, hopes and dreams, then a prayer life will eventually take hold of them and they’ll gradually reach the point where they’ve made it — they’ll get to that point where they no longer have to fake a prayer life because they’ll have discovered how to do it along the way.

Well, in a very real way the same process is at work for those of us who are to conform our lives to Jesus Christ. For truth be told, none of us really know how to live like Christ, do we? All we can do is start. All we can do is start trying to live like Christ, knowing and trusting that if we work at it long enough his life will eventually take hold of our lives until they’re one and the same.

So set your feet to the road, brothers and sisters. Even when you’re not sure where to go next, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. For one day your journey of change and transformation is going to come to an end. Amazingly, the very image of Jesus Christ will be shining through you for all to see. And when that happens, my friends, when your life and Christ’s life are finally one and the same, you can rest in peace knowing that you too have made it.

The Rev. Stephen Yates is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Destin.