Did you ever have those WWJD hand bands back in the day? I never had one but I had tons of friends who wore the WWJD hand band. It wasn’t like they were over-spiritual or anything. It was just cool to wear. And I liked the WWJD trend but on a deeper level, it didn’t mean much to me.
Now it does.
As you mature in your faith, your desire to act and think like Jesus increases. It is not an easy thing to do. Jesus was perfect. You and I are not. We battle with a lot of things. We battle with our flesh. We battle with other people’s drama. And let’s not forget the little guy who tries to put impure thoughts into our minds. So there are a lot of things to battle with but do you know what I have realised? We can be like Jesus. Everything Jesus did on earth was to show us that we can follow His example. You can choose not to react in anger when someone pushes you to the edge. You can act out in love when you are surrounded with so much hate. Sounds almost impossible right?
Actually it’s not. It just requires you to keep asking that question, “What would Jesus do?” I’ve done it so much now that it has become my default reaction when someone tries to upset me or I find myself in a tricky situation. During service on last week, there was this young lady that had determined in her heart to get me upset. Everything that was coming out of her mouth was annoying to me, her attitude was unbecoming and she just refused to get out of my face. I had an option; to put her in her place and move on or ignore her ‘behaviour’ and still show her love. What do you think I did? I did what Jesus would do. I kept quiet throughout her rant. I even managed to smile. Actually the smile was a way to stop me from saying the things that were on my mind. I didn’t really listen to everything she was saying. All I kept saying to myself was “Adedoyin, what would Jesus do?” That helped me to avoid major drama that day.
Back home, thinking of what Jesus would do has really helped me to love my family members more and be more understanding as well. My brother just developed an attitude from nowhere last week and by the weekend, I had already had enough of it. I must confess, I did what Jesus would not have done. I was cold to him and I spoke to him harshly, the way the old me would have done. But as I left his room, this is what my inner voice was saying, “Is that was Jesus would have done? Was that the best way to handle the situation?” I tried to rationalise the whole situation by defending myself. It was his fault afterall. He deserved it because of his bad attitude. And then the voice said again, “When did Jesus ever pay evil for evil?” So even though I felt my brother ought to have apologized for his behaviour, I went to his room to apologize and the matter died there. Yesterday, he was so charming. I couldn’t believe it was the same person who had been giving me attitude for almost a week!
When you consider what Jesus would have done before you act, you end things on a better note. And you give yourself less headache. You cannot control what people do to you. You cannot control the things they say about you or how they treat you. What you can control is your reaction. Let your reaction be informed by what Jesus would have done in that same situation. How would you know what He would have done you ask? Just read your Bible. Did you see the way He dealt with His accusers and the people who despised Him? In fact, Jesus is the man! My ultimate mentor in how to deal with people.
It doesn’t matter if you feel you have been treated unfairly. That’s life. Don’t act out in anger or self-pity. Don’t have the “An eye for an eye” mentality. Always be the bigger person. And guess what? Those situations where you have to decide whether to act out in love or anger are usually tests. If you flunk it, you will redo it again and again until you learn the lesson God wants you to learn. So when you next are pushed to the wall, take a few seconds and ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?”
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