An Extraordinary Life

What would Jesus do? We wear this on bracelets, we plaster it on the back of our cars. The question flickers through our minds when someone asks how we feel about alcohol or sex before marriage. 

But as I sat on the couch watching the little girl I nanny play with her dolls, the question pestered me. What would my Jesus do? 

Before coming home a month ago, I read a book about stories And living a life as a story. Fully, abundantly, life giving. It's an easy goal to have, but in the moment when children are wrestling you to the ground, your little sister is screaming at you at the top of her lungs, and your heart just wants to withdraw and run away, how can you live that story that seemed so ideal? The story that seemed like so much fun. 

And I honestly and truly want to evaluate in every situation, what would Jesus do? 

I don't believe that Jesus would sit back and just admire as Claire played with her dolls. No, I believe he would be on the floor arranging the greatest tea party that ever existed, treating her as if she we the only important thing in the world.

What would he do when my sister screams to get her way and cries-more like sobs- just wondering if we love her. He wouldn't walk away and ignore her. He would be by her side until she believed it with everything inside her. That's what He has done for me. 

Jesus has given us the greatest outline, to the greatest story. Frequently when we read the Bible or go to church we imagine God up in heaven creating a list of rules, smiling at the misery he might put us through. And we say, he doesn't understand. He hasn't walked this life. Yet, He did. In the most vulnerable of forms, human. He experienced every emotion, pain, hurt and temptation. Every joy, love and beauty. And he shows us how to live. Each person that he came into contact with knew they were valued. He never gave a list of rules, he smashed the pharisee's law to pieces when he said the greatest commandment is to love God and love others. 

So what would Jesus do? 

I don't know. Ask yourself as you do your job, live your life. Never ever let it get mundane or boring. Jesus always had excitement in his life. 

This year compared to last year, it's beginning to seem mundane. But it doesn't have to be. God is not a god of mundane, so if he has called me here, as I am confident of, I know that he will blow me out of the water and teach me how to live an ordinary life, extraordinarily.