Modeling behavior

It is quite possible that I am more susceptible than other people, but I confess to being quite affected by movie heroines. For days after I see a movie, I may go around walking and talking slightly differently because of a character in some film that impressed me.

You and I have been talking about Doctor Zhivago recently, so I need to tell you that I have been hitting "replay" on YouTube every three minutes for days now just to hear "Lara's Theme" while I'm typing. But as I do this I also see the beautiful Julie Christie, and I know it has caused me to try, in subtle ways, to be more feminine and mysterious. (No one seems to notice.) If I had happened to see a Katharine Hepburn film, I suppose I would have gone for a pluckier persona. Whichever the soup de jour, it fades after a few days, like the afterglow on Moses' face after descending from the mountain.

Models profoundly affect us. I cannot believe that I am unique in this. Imitating models is not bad; the Bible tells us to do that:

"Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked" (1 John 2:6).

"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1).

"Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eye on those who walk according to the example you have in me" (Philippians 3:17).

So imitation is good-if we imitate what is good. When you think of it, everything we have learned all our lives-from walking to speaking our mother tongue-has been a process of sheer mimicry. And we are so incredibly good at it that we fine-tune it to the subtlest detail. I have a Korean friend who is from Pusan, while most of his friends in America are from Seoul. To me, his accent sounds identical to the others', but I notice they kid him about his sing-songy cadence. Likewise, Korean teens have told me that when they visit Korea, other kids pick them out them as Americans a block away by their walk.

I have been blessed (I kid you not about this; I thank God every day) with a few friends who are so like Christ that I actually understand the Scriptures better by just watching and listening to them. Now you don't have to tell me that I need to stick to the Bible and not to fallible man, because I know all that. My point is that the power of modeling the truth is much greater than I had realized. When a person is actually incarnating the commands and truth of God, there is a kind of circular dynamic that comes into play: Just as you have been reading the Word to understand your world, you can read a faithful and godly person to understand the Word.

For example, it is helpful to be told that "love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful" (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). But if you know a person who embodies all that in one package, it augments the value of the written word like sprouting a grain augments its nutritive value (so I'm told). Hey, maybe this is what Paul means when he says our obedience to Christ makes us "adorn the doctrine of God our Savior" (Titus 2:10).

Oh, there is something deep afoot here, brothers and sisters. I believe that the world has not seen what would be unleashed upon it if we were all not only talking the talk but walking the walk. Let us pray for that.

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