What if some of the most meaningful moments you have with Jesus don’t happen during a church service or even during your morning devotional? What if they happen while you’re driving home, watching a sunrise, wrestling with a decision, laughing with someone you love, or sitting alone when a thought about Jesus suddenly captures your attention? For just a moment, everything else seems to move into the background and you become aware of Him. You turn toward Jesus, and an ordinary moment becomes something more.
That’s a cc: Moment™.
A cc: Moment is a moment when we become aware of the presence of Jesus and share what is happening with Him. Sometimes we intentionally turn toward Him. Other times something seems to awaken us to the fact that He is already there. Either way, for that moment, Jesus moves from the background of our awareness to the center of our attention. We are with Him, and we know it.
My hope is that cc: Moments become part of the everyday rhythm of our lives. You might tell a friend, “I had a cc: Moment this morning,” or realize in the middle of your day, “I need a cc: Moment.” But my hope is bigger than giving a name to something. I hope we begin discovering how much of our ordinary lives can actually be lived with Jesus—and that living with Him begins changing us.
A cc: Moment might last twenty seconds or twenty minutes. It can happen while you are reading your Bible or praying, but it certainly isn’t limited to those times. It can happen almost anywhere because Jesus isn’t confined to our designated time with Him. He is present in the life we are already living.
More Than Including Jesus in the Conversation
The first movement of cc: Jesus™, and the beginning of many cc: Moments, is inclusion. But inclusion goes much deeper than simply remembering Jesus is there. To include Jesus is to open the life you are actually living to Him. You let Him into what is happening inside you—your thoughts, fears, questions, gratitude, frustration, hopes, temptations, disappointments, dreams, and even the things you aren’t quite sure how to put into words. You stop keeping parts of your life to yourself and begin sharing them with Him.
The image of cc’ing Jesus gives us a simple way to picture that inclusion. But relationship with Jesus takes the idea much deeper. He doesn’t need to be copied on what is happening in your life because He already knows. He doesn’t need to be summoned into your day because He is already there. We are the ones who need reminding. A cc: Moment is when we recognize His presence and open the moment to Him. In one way or another, we are saying, Jesus, I want to share this with You.
In that sense, a cc: Moment is prayer, but perhaps not always the way we have thought about prayer. It is communion with Jesus in the middle of real life. Sometimes it may sound like a traditional prayer. But often it can be much simpler and more natural: Jesus, what do You think about this? Help me know what to do. Did You see that? Thank You for this. I need You right now. I’m glad You’re here. You aren’t trying to say the right thing or get something from Him. You’re sharing your life with Someone you love.
And sometimes you don’t even have the time, words, or energy for that much. Maybe all you can whisper is, cc: Jesus. Or, Jesus, I need to copy You right now. Even those few words can turn your heart toward Him and open the moment to His presence. That can become a cc: Moment too.
And sometimes you don’t initiate the moment at all.Something simply draws your attention toward Jesus. A sunrise suddenly catches your attention, and almost instinctively your heart turns toward Him. A friend calls at exactly the time you needed encouragement, and you recognize it as a gift from Him. A verse you have read twenty times suddenly reaches somewhere deeper in you because today you needed those exact words. Or perhaps in the middle of an ordinary day you simply become aware of His nearness and something awakens inside you: Jesus, You are here.
Those are cc: Moments too. Sometimes you turn toward Jesus. Sometimes it feels as though He has turned your attention toward Him. Either way, the moment becomes something you share with Him.
From Including Jesus to Copying Jesus
Inclusion is only the beginning. We don’t include Jesus simply because we want His help. We include Him because we want Him. We want to know Him, enjoy Him, hear His heart, and become more like Him. The goal isn’t merely to get Jesus into more of our decisions. It is to get more of Jesus into us.
That’s the second movement of cc: Jesus, and it gives the letters cc another meaning. Before digital copies, carbon paper was used to make a carbon copy of an original. In the same way, we want our lives to become increasingly like Christ. We include Jesus, and through that closeness we begin to copy Him. The closer we live to Jesus, the more His love, character, desires, and ways begin to show up in us.
That’s the beautiful mystery of a cc: Moment. You include Jesus because you want to copy Jesus, and as you stay close to Him, His life begins to copy into yours. You aren’t trying to manufacture a better version of yourself. You are allowing the life of Jesus to form in you through relationship with Him.
Closeness creates the copy.
A Moment Can Become a Way of Life
There is no special formula for having a cc: Moment. It isn’t defined by what you say or how long it lasts. What matters is that, for that moment, you are sharing your life with Jesus.
And as those moments multiply, something begins to change. The separation between our “time with Jesus” and the rest of our life begins to melt away. More and more of life becomes life with Jesus. One cc: Moment leads to another, and eventually what began as moments starts becoming a way of living.
But I hope it doesn’t stop with us.
Imagine a friend telling you, “I had the most incredible cc: Moment yesterday,” and then sharing what happened in that moment with Jesus. Imagine families talking about their cc: Moments around the dinner table. Imagine friends texting each other, “I need a cc: Moment.” Imagine someone struggling and, instead of only telling them what we think they should do, saying, “Let’s have a cc: Moment together.”
What might happen if we began sharing these moments with each other? Not to make ourselves sound spiritual, but because hearing how Jesus is meeting someone else can awaken us to how He might be meeting us. Their cc: Moment awakens us to the possibility of ours. And ours might awaken someone else.
Something deeply personal begins to become something shared.
And perhaps that’s how something larger begins. Not with a program or a campaign, but with people turning toward Jesus. One person in the middle of an ordinary day. Then another. A husband and wife. A few friends. A family. A church. Thousands of ordinary people giving Jesus their attention and affection in thousands of ordinary moments.
Could something as small as a moment become a movement?
I don’t know. But I would love to find out.
Because most of life happens in ordinary moments. And every one of them is another opportunity to include Jesus, to be with Jesus, and through that closeness, to become a little more like Him.
One moment at a time.
cc: Jesus™ and cc: Moment™ are trademarks of cc Jesus, LLC.
