WWJD? - No Ifs, Ands or Buts

Spirituality Column #262
November 15, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

WWJD? – No Ifs, Ands or Buts
By Bob Walters

Christians ask “What Would Jesus Do?”

A better question is “What DOES Jesus Do?” An even better question is “What does Jesus do that is a model for my life?” And an even better question than that is “What IS Jesus doing in my life right now?”

Asking what Jesus “would” do splits a couple of linguistically problematic hairs.

A common critique of “WWJD” is that it comes dangerously close to putting “me” in the place of Jesus. Becoming “like” Christ (Philippians 3:10), and actually being Christ, are two vastly, massively and dramatically different things. Jesus commands us to love God, not to be God (thanks to Satan, Adam and Eve learned that one the hard way). Jesus said, “Remember me,” not “Be me.” Be careful.

Also, the word “would” signifies what grammar class calls a subjunctive mood or “conditional” phrase; it implies “if” and introduces doubt. Jesus is not an “if,” He is eternally God and human. Sectarians debate the “nature” and personhood of Jesus after the resurrection but the Bible says He is eternally fully God and fully man.

That’s the final answer, mystery and all. “Jesus is,” not “Jesus if.”

Certainly our earthly, human lives are full of subjunctives, contradictions, ifs, ands, buts and maybes. I project my worldly pride and fight for my “rights” yet often realize later, I’m not in the right. Other people see my failings, which robs my integrity, and I hate when that happens.

Jesus had perfect integrity and never wavered in his responsibility. Not one thing about Jesus was “proud” but everything about Jesus had integrity. Jesus came as a servant (in Greek, dulos, “slave”) without pride or rights, only responsibility to God. He was steadfast in that integrity, and the prideful Pharisees and many others hated Him for it.

If we are shooting for “like Christ,” the starting line is to emulate the integrity of Christ’s commitment to God.

On the up-side, “WWJD” very importantly puts Jesus in our lives today, as in … “What Would Jesus Do … right now?” We don’t “carry that old rugged Cross” because of what happened, like the hymn says, “On a hill far away.” We carry our cross today because Christ is alive today, and because what Jesus did “once for all” with grace and passion on the Cross perpetually restores our eternal human relationship with God the Father … a relationship that perpetually renews with our ongoing faith in Christ.

Jesus is never past tense, and is never woulda’, shoulda’, coulda’.

Jesus is “I am.” Right now, and forever.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) observes that pride and rights are almost always about “me,” and that integrity and responsibility are almost always about God.

© 2011 North Faith Publishing

The Open-Mindedness of God

Spirituality Column #94
August 26, 2008
Current in Carmel - Westfield newspaper

The Open-Mindedness of God
By Bob Walters

Adam and Eve’s sin wasn’t so much about the act of eating the fruit as it was about (1) disobeying God and (2) trying to be like God.

You can read this whole story in Genesis 2 and 3, but it seems very possible that God is more concerned about what we think than what we do.

This doesn’t mean it’s OK to sin (physical disobedience to God) as long as our faith (mental acceptance of God) is expressed. It’s not. God made that clear back in the Garden.

But in order for us to truly experience God, it is necessary to do it with more than just pure actions. We must do it with an open, not a closed mind.

We cheat ourselves if we make the mistake of putting God in a box – defining and limiting God to being what we want Him to be for our earthly and immediate desires. We have to be open to all that God can do.

It is far more than we can imagine.

Consider that God is eternal and therefore already knows everything, yet we still have freedom to seek Him or not to seek Him. It makes me think perhaps God has an open mind about us. He wants to see what we make of things.

The Bible tells me God created everyone, Jesus came for everyone, and the Holy Spirit is accessible to everyone. It excludes no one.

It also tells me that God doesn’t capture anyone. Even the 12 Apostles and Saint Paul made the decision to follow Christ, although in Paul’s case, Christ brought out the persuasive big stick (see Acts 9).

Considering whether God has an open mind, I look at our world God created and notice something astounding … no two of anything are exactly alike. Not two people, two trees, two mountains, two blades of grass, two butterflies or two snowflakes.

So why did God – who created a world of beauty and harmony and repeatedly pronounced everything as “good” (Genesis 1:4, 10,12,18, 21, 25 and 31), make absolutely everything different from everything else?

You may have a different thought on this, but I think it is because God has an open mind. The choice to follow Him is truly ours.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) points out that Genesis 2:17 identifies the forbidden fruit only as “the knowledge of good and evil,” i.e., judgment as a sin. That’s something else to think about.

Independent as Sin

Spirituality Column #91
August 5, 2008
Current in Carmel - Westfield

Independent as Sin
By Bob Walters

In our culture the words “freedom” and “independence” are virtually synonymous.

We might respectfully describe an especially non-conformist person as an “independent cuss.” A “freedom rider” in the 1960s was a socially conscious agent of change. Our “Declaration of Independence” laid out America’s utterly unique (and I believe God-ordained) roadmap to the magnificent human, economic and political freedoms we enjoy.

And yet, from a Biblical standpoint, the freedom we are to have in Christ, as children of God ordained by the Holy Spirit, is just about as opposite from human independence as one can spiritually get.

I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover, re-read parts of it every day, attend organized Bible and theological classes or discussion at least twice a week, go to church, read daily devotions, am usually in the middle of one religious book or another, say grace before every meal, am involved in numerous church activities … and if it looks like I am just sitting there doing nothing, I’m probably praying.

This is to say that I am kind of a “gym-rat” when it comes to church, Bible study, personal growth and change in Christ, and theological education.

But for all the seeming spiritual contradictions, conundrums and mysteries I’ve encountered in my faith walk, the realization of the “opposite” natures of freedom and independence is right at the top of the list.

Our Biblical human freedoms are based around the fact that we are to be free to pursue God, have an individually personal and unique relationship with God, and be free to love God and others, in community, as the Holy Spirit directs.

God designed our hearts to be free to love God and love others.

The error Adam and Eve made in the garden – the biggest blunder of all time – was to mistake their freedom given by God to discover love, with the independence described by Satan to discover power.

All our temptations are exercises in independence. God wants us to be free to totally love and rely on him and each other. What He does not want is for us to be independent from Him.

We try to be free as birds, but too often are independent as sin.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) back in 2008 read “The Shack,” a whimsical story that warmly and clearly describes the beauty of freedom with God, and the coldness and danger of independence from God.

Evil Is as Evil Does - The VT Murderer

Spirituality Column #25
May 1, 2007
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Evil Is as Evil Does
By Bob Walters

I’m thinking of the Virginia Tech murderer.

We are each of us, every human being, made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). We are inherently good.

We are also each of us, thanks to Adam and Eve, possessed of a heart that is “desperately wicked” (Genesis 6:5, Jeremiah 17:9). We are inherently evil.

Modern psychology describes complex social and behavioral patterns, externalizing our individual behavior and removing blame from our actions. Secular psychology endeavors to locate blame either in the past, outside of the self, or both; the media searches for blame where psychology leads it.

The Bible describes good and evil in absolute personal terms, locates Good in God and Evil in our hearts, and makes us personally accountable to God and to each other for our social and behavioral manifestations.

Pull God out of the equation and psychological description melts into a stew of non-absolutes. Psychology doesn’t like the E-word. Neither does the mass media.

Evil is a hard word to say. It makes Satan real. It makes God real. It gives voice to the truth of the Bible and the truth of our hearts. It makes that church stuff nearly everyone used to learn – Christ, crucifixion, resurrection – real.

It makes the inadequacy of our secular-dominated society real.

It’s sad to think that our individual destiny is determined by our capacity for evil, or that our thriving for goodness can be defeated so easily by the evil of a gunman bursting into a busy classroom.

Current national statistics indicate 90 percent of American teenagers are “unchurched.” That is frightening because they are missing exposure to immensely important concepts like, “do unto others as you would have them to unto you,” “love your neighbor” and – critically, a Bible exclusive – “love your enemies.”

Mankind’s great capacity for goodness is revealed when we use our freedom to seek God. Our wickedness and evil is when we use our freedom to define ourselves as God (Genesis 3:5).

Seek God, or Be God? Which do you think was in Cho Seung-hui’s black heart that day?

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, grieves for the unspeakable loss of young lives at Virginia Tech, and cries for their parents.