WWJD?

I still see them from time to time. I see the wristbands and the bumperstickers. Perhaps you recall the WWJD craze from a few years ago. It started out as an easy-to-remember way of teaching youth about Christian ethics.

The concept has been around for a long time. In addition to the teachings of the Church, there are many popular books on the subject. Way back in 1897, In His Steps was a popular book about a town that attempted to live in response to the very question "What Would Jesus Do?" Even as long ago as the fifteenth century, Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ taught the same concept.

But, Christian thinker Dallas Willard had an interesting critique of this method of following Christ.

"It doesn't go far enough. We should grow in our understanding and relationship to Christ to where, in most cases, we wouldn't need to ask what He would do. We would know -- and we would be doing it."

WWJD remains an external practice. It is something that occurs purposefully and as a part of a series of events. So, what's wrong with that? Willard says that it doesn't go far enough. "If you have to stop to ask what he would do," Willard said "ordinarily you will have already done what he wouldn't do. Life moves very fast."

A better way is to develop a life within Christ and his teachings that is so deep and meaningful that Christ's actions become my actions. We need to think like he taught us to think in the past (discovered via Scripture), and all so remain harmonious with his guidance in the present. 

This type of life within Christ does not occur overnight. Rather, it takes years of practice and discipline. It takes, prayer, devotion and dedication. As we discipline our inner lives, our outer lives begin to mirror the Christ within. 

WWJD is a good start, but it is merely a start. Let us proceed beyond the question, toward the state where the question does not even need to be asked. Let us pursue a goal of becoming so embedded within Jesus that what he would do is what we do as second nature.