01/07/99
WWJSB?
I saw my first WWJD? wrist bracelet nearly three years ago.
"What Would Jesus Do?" has expanded from a simple
consciousness-stimulator into one of the most successful marketing
campaigns since "Where's the Beef?"
I've seen WWJD? T-shirts, watchbands, posters, note pads and
matching pen/pencil sets. Simple rawhide straps and letter beads
have given way to embroidered sweatshirts, cross-stitched wall
hangings and embossed leather Bible covers.
Whether four letters and a question mark has made a significant
change in the behavior of man toward fellow man can be argued
indefinitely.
I am certain that somewhere there has been a student expelled from
school for misbehavior while wearing his WWJD? ballcap and a young
woman has been ticketed for speeding in her car with the WWJD?
license plate frame over her bumper and WWJD? air freshener dangling
from the rear view mirror.
All which led me to wonder this week, in one of my few moments of
clarity, WWJSB?
Where Would Jesus Snow Blow?
I returned home Sunday night from a four-day youth retreat where I
saw WWJD? note cards, pins and even a schedule planner with
gold-embossed lettering.
I returned home to sidewalks and a driveway drifting shut with snow
in spite of the valiant efforts of The Wife and children against
howling winds and falling snow.
"I scooped five times and just couldn't keep ahead of it," The Wife
apologized.
Not a problem, I replied, grateful for the work which had been done
by the family without the benefit of motorized equipment. Besides, I
enjoy cranking up the old snowblower and attacking those spots where
fatigue or depth of snow make shoveling difficult or impossible.
Thanks to the efforts of those who had gone before me, I had only
minimal work to do in clearing the concrete around our home early
Monday morning.
I started down the block, merrily clearing any drift in my way. I
reached one property boundary-line and kept going. At the next
driveway, I nearly stopped.
A vision of a WWJD? stocking cap popped into my head, immediately
followed by the troubling thought, "Where Would Jesus Snow Blow?"
I looked at the plume of powder streaming from the discharge shoot
of my MDT single-stage snowblower powered by a 3.5 horsepower Briggs
and Stratton engine and saw the letters WWJSB? drifting up, away and
down into the yard.
I kept going. Clearly, my neighbors aren't Pharisees or Sadducees
who Jesus would shun. They aren't the lame, blind or outcast folks
who Jesus would reach out and generously help, either.
Mostly, they are just like me. I passed a couple more houses, at
least making a small mark in the big picture of a snow-covered town.
At the heart of WWJD? is the concept that if there is a need you can
meet by using your talents and abilities, you should at least make
the attempt.
Add a twenty-year old snow blower to my list of resources and hence
my new introspective question, "WWJSB?" Where Would Jesus Snow Blow?
I soon found myself at the end of our block. I turned around to
make another 21" wide path through the snow.
Now I was troubled. I felt the struggle which comes when you
attempt to live out what is right, nice, proper and true. Just how
far do I take this attempt at kindness and goodness? What is the
limit of being helpful?
Some of these people own their own snow blowers. They could do it
themselves. Others have kids who could do it. Still others hire
folks trying to make an honest living, and I might be depriving
someone else of the opportunity to make money.
I'm no Messiah, and I don't have the time to clear every
snow-covered walk this side of the
sincerely troubled from wondering how many driveways I needed to
clear if I was going to try to live out this WWJD?/WWJSB? thing.
And I was troubled with knowing what was the right thing to do.
Perhaps Jesus would have refilled the gas tank, quit his day job and
started down the next block.
I returned the snowblower to the garage and retreated to my office
to catch up on paperwork.
Life was simple when WWJD? was just a wrist bracelet.