Jose A. Torres Flores posted the following on my Facebook page recently in response to a post that got a lot of … Pharisaical … religious … passionate comments.
I liked it so much, I asked if I could post it on my blog. It turns out, the original post belongs to Mick Mooney. Go check it out here. Below is what he wrote:
Once upon a time, a mother made her son a wristband. On it was written: WWJD. This, of course stood for: What Would Jesus Do?’ She instructed her son to look at the wristband before making decisions on how to live his Christian life.
A week later she was shocked to see that her son had become friends with prostitutes, was hanging out with ‘sinners’ – even buying people who were already drunk yet another round of beers!
Worse still, he had walked into their church the previous Sunday and tore down the book store, overturned the tables and threw the cash register through the window, he then made a whip and chased the pastor out of the building, declaring he was turning God’s house into a den of thieves.
Most shocking was what happened when his mother went to picket the local abortion clinic. To her embarrassment, her son was also there, but he was standing with the women who just had an abortion, and yelled at the protesters: “You who is without sin, throw the first stone!”
The mother was very distressed, but fortunately she found a solution to this terrible problem. She made another wristband, this time it read: WWAPD, this, she explained to her son, stood for: What Would A Pharisee Do? She took the old WWJD wristband and burned it.
Since her son has been wearing the new wristband, looking at it to help him make his decisions, he has become a dedicated tither, a public prayer warrior, an active condemner of ‘sinners’, a passionate defender of the Old Covenant law, and has a great reputation as a godly young man amongst other religious people.
Needless to say, the mother is very happy now. She only wishes Jesus would take notice and follow her son’s good example.
I was very fortunate in my rebel days. Going to a rock band practice area (ie ‘den of iniquity’) most nights – one guy that would be there a few nights every other week was a rare person. He shared Christ but didnt judge. Out to a local diner to talk about things in the Bible.. or share a song after song break to share a worship song he wrote. One of the poorest BUT joyfulest people I’ve known.
That was 30+ years ago…and one person in my lists of faith.
A good post…may I never have a WWAPD wristband…
Great post. I think we all need a reminder on what Jesus really stood for, not what we interpret the bible to mean. We all have our days where we get on our soap box, fall into sin or we just ignore what the Holy Spirit is convicting us of and do what we think is ‘right’ in our own minds.
Great modern parable. Leaves one with a lot to think about.
I had read a while ago that the original Idea WWJD was based on a novel about a town that attempted to put it to practice, but the results led to chaos(?).
Also, a friend stated that a Christian (?), somewhat recently, attempted to live according to the Lord’s commands for a year and the results were less than desirable. I believe he published a book on his experiences.
Speaking for myself, I think it is difficult to follow Christ. Jesus lived a totally pure life based on love and true righteousness. What human can do that? Even a new creature in Christ?
Legalisms and self interest creep in all the time, given enough time. Such is human nature and its corrupting expression in all of human expression The falleness of mankind always rears its ugly head. I guess for the Christian it will always be a battle.