Have you ever tried to get through an entire day - or even a couple hours in a day - facing each decision by asking yourself, “What would Jesus do?” and then acting according to what you sincerely believe? It’s a fascinating project. Slightly scary and potentially discouraging, but fascinating. It brings Jesus to the forefront of your mind in a consistent way and turns him into a real, flesh-and-blood person who had to eat lunch just like you and play with his nieces and nephews and get blamed for something that wasn’t his fault.
You should try it sometime. For a week, say. Or a month. Or a lifetime. You will find it impossible to write something bitter in an email or on facebook. You will have to swallow the harsh words you had for a family member. You won’t be able to complain when you have to give up a relaxing afternoon to watch someone else’s children. You will be more thoughtful, less disagreeable, more compassionate, more truthful. You will see more of the sun and less of the dark.
I’m sure as Christians this is what we’ve been trying to do all along. We’d be doing it already, only we haven’t really trained ourselves into the habit of thinking and acting this way. We do what comes naturally, what comes first. Unfortunately, that includes a lot of bickering, grumbling, and unnecessary severity. They’re little things, really. Brief moments of bad-mannered-ness that even we don’t remember for very long. And so we excuse ourselves. It’s not like we’ve killed anyone. It’s not like we even want to kill anyone. This is true. But we’re not being like Jesus.
I recently read a quote from Monod (no, I don’t know who that is) that said, “Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we will not do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.” We hear about Billy Graham and Mother Theresa, and our thought is, “Well, yeah, that’s great, but I can hardly do that.” And it’s true. Most of us can’t. But what about the things you can do? The places you can go, the people you already know, the brief, easily-forgotten minutes that face all of us every day? What about the little things? After all, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.”
What would Jesus do?
