Someone Better Down The Road

As a boy my interests were in reading and football. In that order.

It helped then, that one of my favourite things to read about was football. Of course I watched it as well. I wanted to be like two players – John Barnes and Peter Beardsley. They played the game in an exciting way and what I particularly appreciated even at time was how intelligent they were. Their movement, their use of the ball, the goals they scored, the goals they created and what they did for the team. It was brilliant.

I wanted to be like Barnes and Beardsley.

I didn’t quite turn out like Barnes or Beardsley. Perhaps there was someone better down the road.

When I was a teenager especially as I finished compulsory education and got into those years around university, I got really interested in music. A friend introduced me to the music of the Beatles and then a little later I really got into the music of Stevie Wonder. Their music was truly brilliant to me and I loved spending hours and hours getting their tunes in my head. I got so much into it that at some point I hoped that I could become like Paul McCartney or Stevie Wonder. Capable of creating and producing music that would impact the lives of millions.

I wanted to like McCartney and Wonder.

I didn’t quite turn out like McCartney or Wonder. Perhaps there was someone better down the road.

My mentors helped me out significantly as I got into my 20’s. They pointed me to the fact that there was indeed much to appreciate in the professions and gifts of Barnes, Beardsley, McCartney and Wonder. It wasn’t for me to discard that and consider it rubbish. It’s just that there was someone a lot better down the road.

As it happened, for a while I wanted to be like my mentors. I didn’t quite turn out like them because they were highlight that the someone better down the road was not them, but the Man they followed.

This Man is awesome. He is so brilliant that for all the words that have been written about Him, there is still so much more that can be said about Him. Following Him has allowed me to discover that though it’s good to have role models and figures to follow, there is a specific part of the world that I am supposed to fulfil. I am supposed to fulfil it by being completely me. The me that has been renewed because of the Man I follow. That way, like my mentors before me, I can point others to the Man who is the better one down the road of life.

I have not quite yet become like Jesus Christ, but unlike Barnes, Beardsley, McCartney, Wonder, Kevin, Ritson, Hughie, Keith, David and Rowland, there is the knowledge that the more I know Him and follow Him with all of my heart, the more I become like Him. Also unlike those fellas, Jesus is openly inviting me and others to be more like Him. The more we get to know Him is the more we realise that He is the best we have to get wherever we are on the road.

The beauty of Him is the more you know Him is the more you need to know Him. The journey down the road doesn’t end. Life changes forever and radically because of knowing Him.

Not that I have come anywhere to knowing all about Him. It’s just that like others before, I want to know more and more about Him and invite others to do the same.

(Photo by Dogoff Zambrano on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden