WDJD?

WWJD

What Would Jesus Do?

He would live for you.

Jesus states that “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”(John 15:13).  I suppose I could probably make an argument that if He also says to “love your enemy”, then my enemy could eventually, in some sense, at some point in time, be my friend as well.  And then, of course, logic dictates that I might lay down my life for them as well.  Scary thought.  It’s happened before.

My point is that I have a choice in how I spend my life.  I could potentially choose to die in someone’s place in some instances.  So, Jesus gave me direction in the manner with which I could live the life He gave me.

But He didn’t give me the choice of where, when, how, or why I would be born, because He has reserved that option for Himself alone.

He chose to die for me, but He chose to live for me first.  He came into this world for that specific purpose, knowing what each of us needed.  No one else has the ability to love in that way, and yet He calls me to love others as I know He loves me. 

This level of love has, in the past, seemed so far beyond my abilities that I would simply give up trying and give in to the needs of the moment.  I would just do what I wanted, responding angrily to something with the rest of the crowd.  Or maybe trying to fix something, or someone, that was not my responsibility and failing miserably.

But real Love, just isn’t like that.

Real Love desires that I give up my prejudices, my anger, my politics, the things I was taught, and all the other “encumbrances” that I’ve accumulated throughout my life, even when I’m faced with all of those same things in my friends, whom I would in fact lay down my life for despite our differences.

My wife and I were talking the other day, and as we were driving past an insanely crowded mall with miles long lines of cars waiting to get into the parking lot she asked, “Why do you think people do that to themselves?  What is worth all that?”

My answer was nothing is worth doing that, but I think we do it because we have such a limited ability to express love for each other that we’ve given in to the idea of “things” as an expression of love.  We have reached a point where we have devoted entire industries to the idea that we can universally express love to our fellow man for only one day out of the year.  Some of us get a few weeks out of it.

We do this because this way we can get out of making a continuous commitment to love others on a regular basis.  Because if we love someone more than that one day then it interferes with our own desires for ourselves.  This becomes how we choose to live, and to die.  And so we choose to live in a constant state of discontent, because no one will give us what we want.

In light of what we’ve become, the question of “What Would Jesus Do?” is perhaps not as relevant as we think it is anymore.  I wonder if the more pertinent question today is, “What Did Jesus Do?”

It’s a question that has already been answered.

He chose to live – for you.  It’s the only answer He could give, and the only One who could give it.

Merry Christmas.

WDJD?

©Dan Bode 2018

Love Conquers All.

I'm reposting this one from 2013 because it reflects a lot of the thoughts that have been going through my head for a while now.  I'll be posting more stuff again in the coming weeks dealing with many of the topics that figure prominently in the news today - because I believe that almost everything that comes up in almost every discussion in our society today is tainted by a lack of the one thing we need the most: Love.

"Love Conquers All"
I’ve heard that phrase for most of my life at one time or another, and I’m not sure I ever really understood it until now. I have no idea why it took so long.
It portrays love in the sense of the conquering hero.
The one whom no enemy can stand against.
The difference for me now is that I understand that the battlefield on which all this conflict takes place is in my own heart.
When I examine it realistically I have to admit that I always thought of it in terms of conquering someone else. I wanted love to conform others to my own expectations of what they should be. I wanted love to be at my command.
Imagine my surprise then, when the blade turned upon me instead.
Love will, if I let it, overcome my pain to grant forgiveness, or ask for it.
It will overcome my pride to extend my hand in friendship to my enemy.
It will overcome my anger to allow my faithfulness.
It will overcome me.
Love conquers all, but first, love conquers me. My walls must be overcome from within.
It is sometimes hard to love, but worth your whole life to reach just one moment of being completely known by another, and to know the other in turn. To reach out your hand unseen in the dark knowing the hand of another is already there in expectation to take it.
It is worth everything for just one moment of this. To be known, and not forgotten.
Living your life in pursuit of that first, and maybe only, all encompassing instant of perfection.
Because God is Love, He created us as an expression of Himself, hence we are created in His image. As an expression of God Himself we are inherently worthy of His sacrifice for us, and yet God on a cross seems so incongruous to our concept of love. That’s the problem with our interpretation of love.   It’s so watered down we have no concept of what real love is. It’s as though in so many ways we have sanitized the true expression of love to be bloodless. It’s all butterflies and sunny days to our general way of thinking.
We seem to forget that love "endures all things"(1Cor 13:7), and the need for endurance implies conflict, distraction, and sometimes pain. We should love fiercely letting nothing come between us.
Love, when practiced honestly, becomes beauty incarnate.
Love influences the practice of my life. It gives everything I do different meaning.
Love truly is an action, and yet it is more. It becomes what we do, where we go, who we know and how we know them. Love cannot reach its full potential in our lives if we do not allow ourselves to live in complete surrender to it. If I am only capable of loving someone when things are all good, then I don’t really love at all.
Each of the qualities of love (1Cor 13) implies that there is a need for that quality because its opposite exists in the world. Patience is needed because the lack of it causes bitterness. Kindness is needed because cruelty exists. The difficult part of this is that we all know that we are capable of dealing out all the opposing forces of love. We focus on the positive aspects because we feel better when we actively pursue them as a lifestyle. There is healing in the practice of love.
“Love your enemies” (Lk 6:35), is the most difficult aspect of love, but Jesus gave us examples of it throughout His life. Judas was the most difficult enemy to deal with because he was already loved. His ability to cause pain was increased by the measure of love Christ gave him. There are times when the evidence of the love of God seems so profound to me that I actually understand why some people fear it rather than readily accept it.
Even the one who betrayed Christ was allowed at His table. Christ knew that Judas was His betrayer, and yet His love for him was such that He still desired Judas’ presence in the Passover meal; one of the most intimate of settings.
Judas didn’t deserve that and he knew it. Jesus knew this as well, and gave it to him anyway. All this made Judas’ betrayal that much more profound to Judas, for the greater the love we give when betrayed causes that much more pain for the betrayer.
And is it not one of the most important aspects of love that we should find the ability to love our enemies for the simple fact that when we sin we ourselves act as the most intimate of enemies to God, and He loves us still? Is He not the greatest example of loving one’s enemy simply by loving us for, “He loved us while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8), let alone the ones we condemn without authority?
It is the ability of love to not only conquer all things, but to remain after everything is done and over with. After all the blood has been shed, the ground churned, and with the vultures circling overhead to pick at the corpses of our discontent, Love walks among us to restore us after all the pain to a healed state ready to love again. It is self perpetuating by nature so that when we learn to love ourselves, as God loves us, we understand that we must do something to maintain it in ourselves in order to stay alive to share it with others.
His love makes us matter.
And so we are filled with possibilities.
Because of His love Jesus not only died, but He came back for us!
He. Came. Back.
It is this single, overwhelming act of love that inspires every other expression of true love that we can ever submit to or practice in the human experience.
Through His redemption we are alive with the potential to discover the worth of our very souls.
Live in love,
Do battle in love,
Rest in love,
Die in love,
Return in love.
God did.
It’s called Easter.
©Dan Bode 2010