This sums it up for me (or the nutshell of all of my theology):
For me being a follower of Christ means that I am an active participant in the story of God’s people and God’s love and healing of the world. I am learning how to recognize, embrace, and confront the ways in which I am broken and hurt other people, while gaining the ability to trust in God’s vision of a future where everything is whole and healed. The challenge of being a follower of Jesus is learning from his life, death, and resurrection and then translating those principles and paradigms into the small, seemingly inconsequential activities of my life. This requires me to be honest with my inabilities and shortcomings while developing in my faith of a loving and grace-filled God, who desires to be in working relationship with me. Learning from the example of Jesus, my love for other broken people is paramount in my life of faith and without these interactions my belief would lack a medium of expression. Following Jesus distinctly also shapes the way I view the future of the world and people’s lives, allowing me to imagine the Kingdom of God as a coming reality, which in turn marks my outlook with practical, redemptive hope. Ultimately, being a follower of Jesus means that I am devoted to a God that is healing my brokenness through grace and love, and through my personal resurrection I am able to turn and embrace the world in a way that models God’s grace and love to other people and systems, participating with God in the current and coming Kingdom.
