Yeah, I know, it's become a Christian staple. Brand me a heretic. :]

It originated in one of the best-selling Christian books of all time, In His Steps, by Charles Sheldon. It has been read by countless millions, encouraged countless millions more. I'm not among them. It's not good literature -- the characters are cardboard, the plot is forced, the whole bent of the book is obviously contrived towards an end: to push forth the message, What Would Jesus Do. So what is wrong with that? you might ask. What does its status as literature have to do with its message? I say, everything. If the characters are phony, if the plot is fake, what does that say about its message? What kind of testimony have puppets playing a tired script at the hands of the puppetmaster? The beauty of literature, the beauty of good writing, is that we love the characters, we breathe and cry and run through the streets with them, we feel their hurt, we rejoice in their joy, and we follow them until the end of the book, and barely remember, while we're reading, that these are not real people and these things did not really happen. But with In His Steps, we are painfully reminded every step of the way by stale dialogue and all-too-perfect occurrences, so that not a single character breathes life. And yet, that is what the book is supposed to be about -- life, true life, the vibrancy of a relationship with Christ Jesus.

I do not blame Pastor Sheldon for its shortcomings. In fact, I do not blame anyone but the Christian community for not seeing through it, and accepting it for what it is: a subpar piece of fiction pushing an agenda. I have no doubt the Lord has used this book to His advantage. He always does.He can use the actions of a wicked person with a wicked motive to further His end, surely He can use the action of a righteous person with a holy motive tenfold (okay, so I can't actually say that Sheldon was a righteous person, nor that his motives were holy, with surety, but it seems a safe assumption, and so we will operate under it).

But let us get back to the agenda that the book pushes, and unearth what I believe is the true folly. WWJD. What would Jesus do? It sounds so perfect, so humbling, so Christian and sheeplike and like what a pursuer of the strait way should say and do: look to the Savior, He will guide you. So where is the folly? It is subtle -- by asking, what would Jesus do? we are not looking to the Savior to guide us at all. We are looking to our own understanding of what the Savior did two thousand years ago, our own wisdom in applying His actions and reactions to our specific situation, our own ability to determine why He did what He did in each situation, to accurately pinpoint His motives and purpose in each recorded decision He made and be able to say, that's what I need to do, cause that's what He did. In short, we trust ourselves, rather than Him.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20,21

What is the alternative? Ask yourself, What does Jesus want me to do now? Or, more precisely, ask Him directly: Lord, what should I do? Instead of relying on our own understanding, pray for direction, let Him guide you. He works in many ways, be it a stirring in your spirit, an encouragement from a friend, or a passage of Scripture. There is so much we can learn from what Jesus did all those years ago, but for us to have the capacity to understand and apply each circumstance to our own circumstances, we must be in communication with the Lord. Trust Him, and He will lift you up. We are not privy to all the nuances in His red words, but we know who is.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.    Proverbs 3:5

Pray without ceasing... Test all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:16,21

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" (Is. 40:13) But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2: 10-16

To mutilate a famous American patriotic quote:

Ask not what Jesus can do for you, but what you can do for Jesus.

Likewise remember: God does not need us to fulfill His work, we need Him to fulfill His work in us, and He can only do so if we surrender to Him. We are servants not out of His necessity, but of our own.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

For I through the law died to the law that I might live in God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.  Galatians 2:19-21