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Recently, bracelets
with colored beads have become popular. They are used to
help give a Christian witness. Some years ago, bracelets
with beads having the letters “WWJD” were popular. The
letters stood for “What Would Jesus Do?”
When the WWJD
bracelets came out, Lutherans stressed the importance of
what Jesus already did on the cross to save all from
sin. The power and motivation to follow Jesus is the
great doctrine of justification by grace through faith
for Jesus’ sake. Once we get that straight, it is time
to ask “WWJD?”
Motivated by the
Gospel of Jesus Christ then, we ask, “What Would Jesus
Do?” More specifically, we ask, “What would an elderly
and disabled Jesus do?” It can be really hard to go from
being someone who helped people all your life to someone
who is older and needs a lot of help.
Maybe we get a
glimpse of what an elderly and disabled Jesus would have
done the time the 33-year-old Jesus made Himself
powerless at the hands of wicked men and the forces of
darkness.
Remember that
Thursday evening when He set out to finish His work? He
didn’t go alone. Remember how He took His friends along?
Remember how, in agony, He asked them to wait and pray
with Him?
The Son of God who
had made Himself nothing needed His friends. They didn’t
do very well for Him, but He needed their presence and
prayers and He told them so.
The fear of
becoming dependent and the advent of dependency can rob
life of all joy and lead to depression. Is there any
doubt that what Jesus would do is accept help in love
and appreciation?
Jesus did
everything right and, of course, we sinners can’t. That
leads us back again to the Gospel. We don’t ask what
Jesus would do so that of our own selves we can follow
Him.
We ask what Jesus
would do because Jesus has paid for all our sins and has
stirred in us the love of God. This love is so great we
can even begin to accept help from others.
An elderly and
disabled Christian a bracelet. With their attitude they
have answered the question WWJD.
(In the third
chapter of her book, 10 Gospel Promises for Later Life,
Jane Marie Thibault deals with the importance of
accepting help from others when we become older and more
dependent.)
From the Older
Adult Ministry Pastoral Advisor
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