When I look at Jesus, I see extravagant, self–giving love. The apostle John saw the same thing. After spending three years with Jesus, he concluded, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son . . . to save the world through him.” Red Letter communities that aspire to look like Jesus will chase after radical generosity. ​
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A Red–Letter community that wants to look like Jesus will dream up whimsical ways to bless individuals with mercy and they will create prophetic ways to dismantle systems of oppression. If the challenge seems too overwhelming . . . do something small. 

Don’t compare your contribution to others. Don’t evaluate your success by the impact it makes on social problems. Just do the next right thing. Your humble expression of compassion will be noticed by God; it will be a prophetic demonstration of what life is supposed to look like. ​

One in ten people on the planet do not have access to safe water; that’s more than twice the population of the United States. “Little Ones” are by far the most vulnerable. A child dies every sixty seconds from water-borne illness. When someone shares a cup of pure water with a thirsty child it does not go unnoticed in heaven. ​

The scene is the Last Supper; Jesus is pouring out his heart and sharing final instructions with the disciples. He’s not surprised to discover his friends are only half listening. They are distracted by a familiar argument . . . who among them was considered the greatest? Jesus doesn’t rebuke them for wanting to be great, he simply redefines the meaning of greatness by asking: “Who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?” After a moment to ponder the obvious, Jesus points out: “But I am among you as one who serves.” In the eyes of our competitive, consumer-driven world, the one at the table with the most power and possessions is regarded as the greatest. In the economy of heaven, and in the eyes of Jesus, it is the one who serves. ​

In the 1980’s W.W.J.D. was a thing! Christians and non-Christians alike bought the paraphernalia­; everything from bracelets, ball caps, and T-shirts. But only the committed put the “What Would Jesus Do” bumper sticker next to their “Honk if You Love Jesus” sticker!
 
I still remember the day I peeled the W.W.J.D. sticker from the rear window of my Minivan. It was the Christmas season of 1987. I was making a mad–dash on Christmas Eve to do some last–minute shopping. Traffic was bumper–to–bumper. The mall parking lot was covered with snow. Red tail lights, from the caravan of cars searching for a place to park, reflected on the slushy white surface. It was my third pass through the parking lot when I spotted an open space on the front row. In the corner of my eye, I saw another car heading for the open spot. The race was on! A proud smirk of victory covered on my face as I pulled into the space, a full two links before my competition. When I stepped out of my van an elderly, grey–haired lady drove past; she slowly rolled down her window and said, “I don’t think that’s what Jesus would do!” My smirk of victory turned into a frown of shame. The lady was right. As she drove off his words echoed in my ear:
 
“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.”
(Luke 14:8-9)
 
What would Jesus do is a great question to ask before making decisions. I wish I had asked it of myself before I raced the older­—and more distinguished lady—to the parking space of honor.
 
What Would Jesus Do, is a question made popular by Charles Sheldon’s book, In His Steps. First written in 1896, the book has sold more than 50,000,000 copies and ranks as one of the best–selling Christian books of all time. It was a “pop classic” in the 1980’s and inspired the W.W.J.D. craze.
 
There is no doubt, Sheldon’s question strikes at the core of Christian discipleship; but here lately I’ve been wondering, are there other questions that will lead me deeper into the heart of Christ? Or to ask it another way, how does a disciple of Jesus move beyond imitating Jesus, to letting the character of Christ be formed in his or her heart? In my quest to follow Jesus, I have discovered two nuances of the W.W.J.D. question that call for a more personal and contextual response.

​Yes, Christian discipleship must be personal, but it cannot be private. Following Jesus—learning how to do what Jesus would do if he were I—includes caring about my community in the same manner Jesus cared for his. Asking, “What would Jesus do if he lived in my neighborhood?” offers yet another layer to the W.W.J.D. question; one that leads the disciple into conversations about incarnation, mission, and context.
 
Jesus, as God incarnate, was sent on mission to a specific place and culture, during a specific time in history, for a specific purpose. Even though our world, and the diversity of cultures that flavor our planet today, are far removed from the Jewish culture of first century Judea, the missional purpose of Jesus remains the same. His mission--to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, relief for the oppressed, recovery of sight for the blind, and to set in motion the kingdom of heaven of earth--is as relevant today as it was when he commissioned his first disciples. The challenge for the twenty–first century disciple is to advance the mission of Jesus incarnationally, in ways that are relatable to the context they find themselves in. 
 
Contextualizing the Christian gospel in ways that are relatable to the culture, and yet congruent with the ways of Jesus, is not a simple assignment. Two things must inform our efforts at living on mission with Jesus. First, we must pay close attention to the things Jesus said, taking them to heart and making every effort to put his words into practice. Second, we must take note of the way Jesus was with people, observing what he valued and how he lived in community, and then adopting his way of being in community as our own. Henri Nouwen observed the way of Jesus and concluded his way was the way of downward mobility—a way of humility and service, a way that leads to the poor, and ultimately to the cross.
 
Doing what Jesus would do will lead us down the path of humility and service. Any sign of discrimination or injustice, that would have disturbed Jesus, will disturb us. We will learn to ask the hard questions about inequity in our context and wonder what Jesus would do in response to the inequity. The questions will prompt us to live beyond the walls of our comfort. We will be compelled to pray for a more just society and we will seek ways to become the answer to our prayers. 

​When a young candidate for ministry asked a seasoned elder in our church how to discern the will of God for her life, the elder smiled and said, “Shucks, we all do what we want to do and then call it God’s will.” I laughed along with the rest of the preachers in the room. We laughed because it resonated with our experience, but none of us would have said it out loud. We would have searched for a more spiritual response, one that offered words of wisdom for the young neophyte.   
This conversation happened years ago. With each passing year, I’ve become more and more convinced that the elder’s response wasn’t a reductionist view of God’s will; on the contrary, it was a golden, tidbit of wisdom. I’ve come to believe the best way to discern God’s will for our lives is to pay attention to the true desires of our own heart and then pursue those desires with all the passion and gratitude we can muster.
 
The psalmist says it like this, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps. 37:3–4) The key to discerning God’s will is to trust, dwell, and delight in God; do this and your heart’s desire will become a trustworthy guide—a compass that will help you discover God’s great desire for your life.
 
If you find yourself in the same spot as my young friend, asking, “What is God’s will for my life?” Here are three things you can do to help bring clarity and confidence to your decisions about the future.

Trust God with your whole heart and do good.  Learning to trust and follow the desires of your heart starts with trusting God more than you trust yourself. Proverbs 19:2 says, “Desire without knowledge is not good; how much more will hasty feet miss the way.”  The danger of making life decisions on the whims of your heart, without engaging knowledge, is the simple fact that our hearts are easily deceived; and sometimes, they are flat–out deceptive. When we make trusting and knowing God our number one priority, God will help us distinguish between our pseudo passions, (the desires rooted in lust, greed, and selfish ambition) and our real passions, (the desires rooted in our true selves, those God-given desires for the things of life that make us fully human.) A good guide for making life decisions when you’re not sure if you can trust your heart is to follow John Wesley’s three simple rules: Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.  

Dwell in the boundaries of God’s land. Sometimes people forget how big God is and fail to grasp how vast are the boundaries of God’s kingdom. It is a mammoth mistake to shrink God’s kingdom to church property, church business, and Christian ministry. When Christians live in a “church-centric” bubble they are prone to forget the boundaries of God’s land includes all of life—every eco-system on the globe, every person on the planet, and every social sphere in society. If you are trying to discern God’s will for your life, it is good to remember, you are free to dream as big as your heart desires. The sky is the limit. There are a gazillion ways for you to join God in God’s redemptive mission of reconciliation. Jesus had a vision for creation. He saw a time looming in the future, when his followers would live in community, loving God, loving their neighbors, and loving the planet in such whimsical ways that the realities of God’s kingdom would actually become the realities of earth. Anywhere you live, everywhere you go, whatever you put your hands to doing, presents an opportunity for you to express God’s will and help Jesus fulfill his vision.

Delight in the Lord.  If you are perplexed about a vocational decision or trying to discern what to do next with your life, push the pause button and remember—God is more interested in your relationship with God than what you do for God. Guard your heart, don’t let the values of this world—the values of expediency, up-ward mobility, fame, fortune, and the like—be the measures with which you base your decisions. Instead, delight in God. Drink deep from streams of joy and find time to soak in God’s presence every day. Sing loud. Laugh often. Look intently for the signs of God’s presence everywhere you go, most especially in the people you meet along the way. When you delight in God, the joy of the Lord will become your strength; and like Jesus, the joy that is set before you, will help you navigate difficult decisions and endure the most challenging circumstances. (See Hebrews 12:2.) Your desires will be grounded in your true self and reveal the person God created you to be.   

​In Galatians 5:16, Saint Paul says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” These three instructions from Psalm thirty–seven provide an excellent picture of what it looks like to walk in the Spirit: trust God wholeheartedly; stretch the boundaries of your life to include all of God’s kingdom; delight in God every day. 
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“The compassionate life,” says Henri Nouwen, “is the life of downward mobility . . . the descending way of Jesus. It is the way toward the poor, the suffering, the marginal, the prisoners, the refugees, the lonely, the hungry, the dying, the tortured, the homeless—toward all who ask for compassion.” Jesus invites the rich young ruler—and all others who read this red-letter story—to free themselves from the talons of consumer-driven idolatry and to follow him on the descending way of compassion. It is good to remember this invitation is in response to the rich man’s question: “What must I do to gain eternal life?”  
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