Junkies

Have you ever known or perhaps lived with a junkie of some sort? There are all types. Junk food, fishing (ahem), music, TV, video game, cell phone... just about anything you can imagine, a person can get hooked on to an extreme. The 'junkie' trait is the kind of thing your spouse should discover before marriage. Granted that most of us are junkies at something, even if it's something tame. Being a junkie can be hard for others to cope with.

I love to fish. I am probably not as much of a fishing junkie as some other folks I know, but it's plenty-enough to make my wife uncomfortable IF she doesn't like fishing. Fortunately, I chose wisely, and my wife is a fisher-woman. My love for fishing does not tend to make her uneasy. I could attend the most hard-core fishing convention in the world and TOTALLY enjoy myself. If everyone there ate, drank, and slept fishing, fishing boats, fishing rods, fishing lures.... I'd be right at home. This is the way of junkies.

I'm also a Jesus junkie. I don't get tired of talking about Him, hearing about Him, trying to do what He did... it's all fascinating and captivating and consuming and contagious! If you want my attention, talk about fishing or Jesus. If you don't, talk about baseball or work.

But now these hard questions. How is it that so many Christians get uncomfortable when you really start talking about being like Jesus? Why would anyone who claims to know Him get tired of talking about Him? I see it. I see it a lot. Some folks don't like extremes of any kind, and being like Jesus is RADICAL. It's divisive. Being like Jesus - or trying to - may cause contention in the home or the family. A prophet isn't accepted in his home town... or home, often enough. Familiarity does breed contempt. "Look at him, trying to be all Jesus-like!" Yes... trying.

I buy Bill Dance lures so I can catch fish like Bill. For some reason people think that is okay, but if I sign on to emulate Jesus, even self-proclaimed Christians think I'm being pretentious.

So far, this post has been fairly judgmental (let's call it exhortational, not a word but go with it) - but mostly it's to me. The reason I think I know what people are thinking is because... it's what I've thought. I now understand, though, that a true junkie is going to make a non-junkie uncomfortable with their passion. What's the saying? "A Jesus-freak is someone who loves Jesus more than you do." Ouch.