IMPRINTING ON JESUS

I was reading a chapter in the book “Organic Church” by Neil Cole and he made this statement: “One big problem in the Church today is that believers are imprinting upon other believers rather than being imprinted on Jesus”. Being someone who majored in Wildlife Management in college AND has a deep love and fascination for animals, the word “imprint” caught my attention immediately and this statement really got me thinking, but before I continue I will define and describe what “imprinting” is to help clarify my views.

Imprint: Form of learning wherein a very young animal (most often found in birds) fixes its attention on the first object with which it has visual, auditory, or tactile experience and thereafter follows that object.

Imprinting in nature, often called “behavioral imprinting” acts as an instinct for survival in newly hatched birds. The offspring must immediately recognize its parent, because threatening events, such as the attack by a predator or by other adults could occur just after hatching. Thus, imprinting is very reliable to induce the formation of a strong social bond between offspring and parent, even if it is the wrong one.

In the bird world, if a chick hatches out of the egg and the first thing it sees is a dog, the chick thinks the dog is it’s mother and will follow the dog anywhere it goes. The chick will not recognize that it is NOT a dog. So, though this concept in relation to “believers imprinting on other believers” may be a bit extreme, I do feel it is has some truth to it.

As I examine my own walk with Christ from the time I asked Jesus into my heart at age 7 up to today, I can see definite signs of the MANY times I imprinted on people and NOT Jesus. I don’t think we do this intentionally, but we do it. We naturally look up to our spiritual leaders, whoever that may be for each person, and sometimes we even model our walk after their’s. I know I have done that! What this chapter showed me is that it is so easy to model ourselves or “imprint” ourselves on a certain person and NOT imprint ourselves on Jesus.

The world today really pushes “higher learning” and “being educated”, but has that possibly fed our insecurities about understanding the Word of God? At least on some level, do we feel that unless we have a commentary in hand at all times or have taken some class on the Bible that God cannot speak to us through His Word? Do we doubt that the Holy Spirit can reveal the meaning of the scripture we read? How many of us are insecure with where our walk is that we find ourselves imprinting on a human spiritual mentor instead of Jesus himself? While I pondered all of these questions for my own walk, the Lord showed me Acts 4:13 and it says “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had no special training. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus". The part of this verse that stands out the most for me right now is the end “They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus”. Not men who had gone to seminary, not men who are known to be very familiar with a commentary, not men who have done every kind of Bible study there is, not men who preach amazing sermons, but men who had been WITH JESUS. Just as God designed baby birds to immediately imprint on their parents once they hatch for protection and guidance in life, so He designed us to imprint on Him and not on men. We should direct ourselves AND others to imprint on Jesus and Jesus only!