When Bobby Brooks was born, his mother put him into foster care so quickly that she did not even name him. The state gave him his name and placed him in a home with nine other foster children. Bobby’s health was so poor that he could not do much outside the house, so he lived a very lonely and isolated life. When he was eighteen, to get out of the poverty cycle and stand on his own, Bobby joined the navy. After ten years of service, he found himself posted in the Hawaiian Islands and that is when his life began to change.
One evening, his friends challenged him to sing at a karaoke night. Bobby did so well and enjoyed it so much, that he kept going back. After one of his performances, a man asked him to join his band as a backup singer. Bobby accepted the offer.
Within a few months, another man approached Bobby and said, “I run a tribute show at the hotel next door. We have an Elvis impersonator and a guy who does Chuck Berry songs. You should become our Jackie Wilson impersonator”. Bobby had never heard of Jackie Wilson, but he borrowed some tapes, learned the former Motown star’s songs, and joined the show. For the next few years, Bobby made his living pretending to be Jackie Wilson.
When the show moved to Las Vegas, the Four Tops, another old Motown group, demanded that Bobby meet with them. When lead singer, Levi Stubbs, met Bobby he said, “Jackie Wilson was my cousin, and you look and sound just like him! You must be family!” Long story short, Bobby got a DNA test done. Guess who his real dad was… Jackie Wilson.
I love that story because Bobby sang Jackie’s songs and pretended to be him long before he knew that Jackie was his dad. The family resemblance was too obvious to ignore.
Philippians 2:5 says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”. The next few verses detail what Jesus did, how he acted, and how he treated people. With the Spirit’s help, we need to live in a similar way.
When we look and act like Christ, people will know who we are even before we tell them. Our family resemblance will be obvious as well.
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