A couple of times each week I coach swimming. Standing on the side of the pool I give instructions to the swimmers and then expect them to do what I’ve said. However, the instructions occasionally get lost in translation. No matter how many ways you try to explain a technique correction they keep making the same errors.

Sometimes the only thing to do is don your togs and climb down into the water with the student.

When you’re in the water alongside the student you can show them what you mean, you can provide the example, you can mould their body into the correct position and posture. As the master, you make the instructions come alive with a tangible paradigm.

Jesus, is the ultimate swimming coach.

He climbed down from the dry comfortable side lines of heaven into the cold water of this world to provide us the exemplary model of what God is looking for. Jesus didn’t stop there. He then climbed down from the table and began to wash the scum and dirt off his friends’ (and his future betrayer) feet. Jesus tells his disciples after washing their feet in John 13: “I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do.” (v15 MSG)

Jesus doesn’t leave us flailing around trying to figure out how to live our lives to glorify God. He came down, took on our form, and showed us in the flesh what to do. His mantra for us: ‘copy me as I copy the Father’. Paul says the same thing to the Corinthians, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV) The master came into our world to get up close and personal so there’d be no confusion about what living a Christ-like life looks like.

Unsure how to love God these days? Let Jesus be the coach. Copy Him, imitate Him, follow Him, do what He did. It starts by finding some feet to wash (friend or foe) climbing down from the table and getting stuck into the grime.

Jesus has laid down the pattern. Now it’s your turn.