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Reading my Bible and praying, meditating upon Jesus and God's Word, talking about Jesus, writing about Jesus, singing to Jesus with others in church, and listening to the preaching of His Word are all acts of worship for me. These times are important as they are the times that I take out of my everyday life and set aside only for Jesus. Worship is very important to my well being and my personal growth as a Christian. However, the crux of Jesus living in me is not found only in my acts of worship. The crux of my faith is found in the mundane day to day as well as in the temptations and trials that I face in the every day. Jesus is about more that my personal salvation and destiny, Jesus is the Way to live.

The Way of living Jesus is found in the way I respond to my son's 85 lb. pit bull that came part and parcel with him from Philly; who thinks that guarding the 'old woman' during the day is his new job as he clings to me like a fly,(patience, Jesus!). Jesus is made known in the way I speak to the telemarketer or the teenage punk next door. He is found in the quality of time that I spend with my grandson and my children. He is found in the Way that I love, honor, (and dare I say?) obey my husband as the head of my household. He is found in the way I treat my parents and others in their old age. Simply put Jesus is the Way that I treat others in the day to day as life presents itself to me. He is the Way of Love. The Way of Truth. The Way of Compassion and Acceptance of others. Jesus living in me is the Way that His Love and Truth and Compassion are extended toward others in the very same Way that He extended them to me; right where I was, exactly as I was, when He revealed Himself to me.

If in my life, I am not living the Way of Jesus then Jesus in me is not having His Way fulfilled through me. Though I study for hours every day and attend church every time the doors are open and never miss my daily devotion and Jesus is not the Way I live my daily life, then I have made Christ in me ineffectual. For this sin there is only one answer, "I must decrease so that He might increase." I have to get me out of the Way by surrendering to Jesus moment by very moment during my daily life. This may sound hard and it is if we attempt to do so by our own effort; but the yoke of Jesus is not a burden and giving ourselves fully to him is much more fulfilling that what our pride promises us and can never deliver. Giving over my way of life for the Way of living Jesus is most certainly an act of trading up. An act that has the power to change the world, to literally turn it upside down, and usher in fully the Kingdom of God.