Among the misconceptions regarding the Right Worship of the True God* the most dangerous ones are those that are home-grown (i.e. church-grown or, much more common, chapel-grown). "What Would Jesus Do?" is one of them. It is especially dangerous, because seeming perfectly fine and justified, it produces a dangerous psychological effect: the narrowing down of your choices, the pressure to be like someone else, to follow, insead of what we instinctively seek: the opening up of our choices, and not following, but blissfully hopping around.
And Christianity is about opening up, not about imitating - with all due respect to Thomas à Kempis, C.R.S.A. and, it may seem for a short tense moment, the Lord himself**.
What would Jesus do? How on earth am I to know? I am myself and Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ. He is the person who gives life back to the dead, who tells his disciples to leave their wives and mothers, who reads people's souls, who tells a tree to wither just because it doesn't produce fruit out of season, who warns people who respect nearly all the commandments that they're on the way to hell, who makes a holy upheaval in your life with one word, who wreaks a happy havoc in your heart with one look, who is the Son of God the Father, who withholds his power to let get beaten on the head by some Roman scum, who died for me and all humakind on the cross. What woud Jesus do? I've got no idea - aprart from the fact that it would blow my mind away.
I may make sense only because of this man, I may live only because of this man, I may be happy only with this man, but I will be me and - God permitting - I will realise God's will - Jesus's will - my way. And it is a free way, because love sets free, because Jesus sets free - and we were created to be all the possible colours, smells, tastes, shapes and quirks of love*** and that's why love opens up a joyous infinity of paths.
The real question then is: what would I do? What would I do if I uderstood just a tiny jot better who Mary's son is and if I had just a fraction of a grain of the love he has - or rather: the love that he is.
*Christianity - I just don't want to overexploit the word and bore you with it; after all, Ch. is all about excitement!!
**I'll come back to this soon and explain that at no time was I suggesting that the Lord didn't know what he was talking about. (Son of Man!, I hope my disclaimer is better than I am).
***people as aspects of Jesus, it just came to me.
