WWJD

WWJD

Some years ago, the acronym ‘WWJD’ (What Would Jesus Do?) used to be pretty popular. We’d wear wrist bands, caps, shirts; all with WWJD emblazoned, to remind us to give a moment’s thought to that question before we did anything. In some ways, it worked – while wearing the bands, I’d remember to ‘be good’ – perhaps in the same way the people of long ago wore crosses around their necks, so that every time they looked at them, they’d remember how their friend Jesus died, and themselves be influenced to live the way he did.

Anyway, I haven’t thought ‘WWJD’ for ages – it’s just that yesterday, I did something which is still bothering me now. Not ‘cos it’s a bad thing (in fact, if it was, I think I’d be bothered much less, which is ironic!) but more because it was probably too good that it was ‘silly of me’, as everyone has told me (three people, up to now).

I’m graduating next year, and we all have to write resumes to apply for the places where we want to work. 2 classmates of mine from the same town asked if they could borrow my resume. They’re a couple, boy and girl – I like the girl ‘cos she’s sweet, but the boy is arrogant and bossy (she said she loves him though, so I tolerate him for that reason). Anyway, we were all in the car, and the boy asked the question. I didn’t want to give my resume because it has my private details, so I said I’d send them the one my mom sent me (and even then, I was apologetic, afraid that they’d think I was snubbing them). So as soon as I got home, I emailed him the one my mom sent, which someone else had sent to her when applying for a job at her firm. It was a good resume, and she’d sent it to me as an example, and I had now sent it to them cos they said they needed an example too.

Then that night, I suddenly realized what I’d done. Although I’d sent them the sample and not mine, I’d copied from the sample, so now theirs would be exactly the same! It was such a good resume – I’d spent days on it, and now I’d given it away. And not even to ‘friends’, ‘cos they only take care of each other (which is normal, since they’re a couple), while I’m always all alone (good thing my parents have money, so I hardly need any favours from anyone – got a car, got stuff etc – but always wished I had someone here to watch out for me, ‘cos I still get pushed around, or served last when I order food). Now they’d all have good resumes and mine wouldn’t be special at all.

Called a close friend to moan, and he said not to do it (but I’d already done it, unthinking, and done it speedily too, ‘cos of that thing in Proverbs that says that if someone asks you for help and you can help them today, you should, and not say ‘come back tomorrow’!). Called my mom and she immediately said she had tons of other less perfect examples I could have sent them. It’s true. Told her it was already done, and she tried to make me feel better by saying that if you looked at it from my friend’s point of view, the world one – then you were cheating yourself and everyone would step all over you and then kick you off the ladder – but that if we looked at it from God’s point of view, it’d be very unchristian to give them a bad resume while I had a good one.

And then today I told my best friend about it, and she said the same (as in, that it was silly and that I shouldn’t go giving my resume out to people, especially since they lived in the same area and would want to work in the same place I do). And then right now, I was just wondering – ok then, what would Jesus do?

Well, from what I’ve read of him, I guess he’d give his all. Share all he had (which is how he died anyway; giving all he had of himself) – show his resume, and let them copy it if they liked. OR…. He’d do the cryptic thing he does with the parables, and write a set of guidelines for them on how to write a resume (since he doesn’t always spoonfeed people with knowledge). ;-)

And at the end of all this, I’m still not sure if I did right or wrong. It feels wrong, but maybe it’ll work out right if I still get the place I’m applying for. And anyway, if we talk about sharing the gospel about Jesus ‘cos it’s something good, I guess we shouldn’t be stingy about the other good things too, ‘cos God can make enough for all. And if God’s on my side, everything will work out for good, one way or another.

(Actually, I haven’t been reading my bible for days; maybe if I had, I'd have been wiser – there’s a story in 2 Kings 20 about that, where the King shows some guests all his treasures, and they attack him later on to get all these treasures. I think it’s about discretion – be kind, but you don’t have to give away everything! Oh no… I’m confused… no wonder the ‘middle way’ that others advocate is so popular – being good, but not too good. It makes for better survival ;-))

Ah well. Will end here for now. Not sure what the lesson is that is learnt, unless perhaps it’s prudence. Another unflattering proverb comes to mind, regarding me :- ( ‘A woman without discretion is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout’. I do hope I haven’t got myself into trouble very badly by sharing all I had……….. (and in fact, if we want to talk about sharing what we have, I'd be eating less, and some people wouldn't have to die of starvation. But we're greedy, and hoard stuff, even what we don't need.........)

(And in the midst of all the philosophical or political posts on this blog, this one is just everyday life, where one is often faced with the question, 'should we be charitable or practical' ........)

Still regretting, still unsure... ironic ;-)