Lessons from a chicken casserole

We often hear the word imitation and cringe. It sor of leaves a bad taste, a lingering sensation of "not good enough".

"Close, but not quite."

"Second best."

That's pretty much what happened when I attempted to make my friend's famous mexican chicken casserole last night. Cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, a can of rotel, velveeta cheese, spices, and Doritos. Simple recipe, but of course, it just didn't turn out the same. Partly because I forgot to crumble the chips before baking it, so the edges of the top layer of chips burned. It tasted fine, it was a good dinner - but not as good as when Steph makes it! Mine was an imitation that fell short.

The Bible instructs us to imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11) At first glance, this is sort of depressing. How can we imitate Christ? How can we attempt perfection? If my chicken casserole can't even make the mark then how can I, in all my sinful filth? And that's on a good day!

The good news is we can't.

Then why did God ask us to? Because it's supposed to be our goal. It's supposed to be what we strive toward. We won't reach that goal on earth, but we will one day in Heaven when our race has been run and we stand at that glorious finish line.

In the meantime, the LEAST we can do for our Lord, who willingly died for us, is to live for Him - and that simply means doing our best, which is still failure, and relying on the Lord to grow us in His image every day.

So mexican casseroles of the world, relax. Imitating Christ is a pretty cool assignment. =)