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I heard a word several years ago – and when I heard it, I didn’t know what it meant. The word was “vicarious”. We all do it, whether we know what the word means or not. When some of you watch sports, you get a vicarious thrill when your quarterback runs a 60 yard touchdown, or your pitcher pitches a no hit game. Vicarious. When I saw Dale Earnhardt win a race, in my mind I was in the cockpit with him! Vicarious means to watch what another person is doing, then imagining that you are the one doing it. I get a vicarious thrill when I watch John Wayne or Clint Eastwood shoot a really bad guy. I didn’t do the shooting. I wasn’t in the scene. But watching it, in my imagination, I put myself there, and get a thrill out of it.

There was a song I grew up with called “Just My Imagination” sung by the Temptations. In the song they sang (and I sang along with them):

Each day through my window I watch as she passes by,
I say to myself, you’re a such a lucky guy.
To have a girl like her, is truly a dream come true.
Out of all the fellows in the world, She belongs to you.
But it was just my imagination, running away with me.
It was just my imagination, running away with me.

That’s vicarious. It’s imagined. It’s dreamed of. You do it when watching television, the movies, sports. You put yourself – in your imagination – in the place of the actor. But you’re really not there. It’s just your imagination.

The Christian way of life cannot be lived vicariously – yet many do so. They imagine they are believers in Christ, but never get in the game. They imagine living for Jesus, but do as little to nothing as they can. Why? Because “it’s just their imagination”. They never REPENTED and RECEIVED the Kingdom of God by faith. … Continue reading →