WWJB. Where would Jesus be? A question worth pondering in the world today. We always ask what would Jesus do, but when he is doing that stuff where would he be? Too often we picture Jesus as this church-going pastor who would preach the best message from the pulpit that we have ever heard. But that is the last place I believe you would find Jesus today. In fact, I think he would stay as far away from the church as possible.
That probably leaves you wondering, where would he go? How about to the places that need him the most? The places that often Christians cower in fear from, the places that are the darkest and we are too worried what others will think if we bring our light there. I propose that you would find Jesus at the hospital by a dying teen's side or a little girl with a terminal diagnosis. He would be at the bars and the brothels with those who feel like they have no one, they try to find love in all the wrong places because the enemies lies have entangled them. What about the prisons, the slums, the drug houses, the schools and so on?
God loves his children and we are his children and so is everybody else even if they don't know it yet. But God has called us to go out and to shine where the darkness greatest so the light can have the biggest impact possible. It's also in Jesus's family line! There were prostitutes and adulterers, murders and cheaters, cowards and liars and yet Jesus wanted them to be a part of his story.
The people Jesus would spend his time with are the ones so often overlooked and underappreciated for what God can do with their lives. So often those with the most broken lives, have the most amazing testimonies when the power of Jesus encounters them. Jesus is our example and he would go to the worst of worst places and sit down and talk with these people, I guarantee you! So my question or challenge to us is why aren't we in those places?
No in a rude way, but honestly, why are we so afraid to see God's heart poured out to those who need it most? You don't give someone a flashlight in the middle of a bright sunny day and say, go shine this to see better, but rather you give it to them because there is darkness that needs to be brought into the light. We have something that is meant to be taken into the very scariest sometimes dangerous places because God has called us to live dangerously. News flash, if you love God he has called you into danger!
Whether it's the prostitutes at the truck stops, the alcoholics at the bar downtown, the physically abused wife crying on her front steps, or a broken and lonely child in class. Or how about the drug dealer in prison or a hospitalized teen, the lost and broken who need someone, these are the people and places you'd find him. He would be with the least of these. That is who he is after and that's exactly who we are called to spread his love and light to as well. So WWJB? Right where we are called to be.
