I'm trying something a little different. Here's a testimony as if written by Simon Zelotes the Apostle:
As an orphan living on the streets, I had often admired the Zealots. The older boys who had joined the cause were always stronger, more confident, and always knew the answer to everything. I wanted to be like them! They gave me a place among them and a purpose around which I could shape my life. I became obsessed with being the most committed, the most courageous, the most zealous zealot they had ever seen. But something was still missing. Many of the men that I had admired so much and had tried so hard to become just like them never seemed to live up to the ideal version of them that I had conjured up in my head. I began to lose some of my zeal and to question if these were really the kinds of men that I wanted to emulate. That all changed, of course, when I met Jesus. Here was a man I could follow, a man that I could emulate and admire without any reservations. And unlike any of my other friends and mentors, Jesus only became more and more admirable and worthy of my love and devotion the more I got to know Him. I have tried every day to be like Him and every day I have failed spectacularly, but in trying to be like Him I have grown so much more than I ever did trying to be like any other of my boyhood heroes. I never stopped being a zealot but now I am zealous for my great friend and mentor Jesus the Christ. He is more than worthy of all of the praise and devotion that I can give and I know that trying to be like Him has been the best thing that ever happened to me. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
