Friday, October 27, 2006

What would Jesus do?


"What Jesus would do?" - this is not just a catchy line on bumper stickers. If we look at it closely, it packs a lot of insight. I do not know the origin of this phrase but it's been proven very effective to role play when we hit situations when it become difficult to make decisions. We are torn by dilemma. During those times, it makes a lot of sense to ask 'what would Jesus do?' under similar circumstances. We may not have all the answers but trying to see from different angle helps a lot. This is also the theory behind the practice of praying sincerely and then seeking divine guidance. It all depends on the strength of our faith. If our faith is strong enough, the prayer helps us focus all our vital energies on the problem. When that happens, no problem is unsolvable. The concentrated energy is so strong that it is like being able to burn a piece of paper by focusing sun rays using a magnifying glass.


Some books on motivation use a slightly different variation of this method. They recommend that we ask ourselves questions such as 'what would our customer advice?', 'what would our boss advice?', 'what would our family members advice?' etc. These are all good questions and help see the issue from different perspectives. However, the original question ' what would Jesus do?' encompasses all such questions and is the best. In order to come up with intelligent insight for 'what would Jesus do?' we need to constantly enrich ourselves with the wisdom of classical spiritual texts of the world. When we stuff a lot of info into our head, it may seem very fuzzy at times and we may not feel confident that we would never be able to recall when we need to. But, mind is a super organizer. It organizes information in such a way that it serves it up just-in-time. So, when we ponder sincerely for answer to the question 'what would Jesus do?', a lot insight will be generated out of our spiritual knowledge provided we have stuffed it in the first place. It's a perfect GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out). We can validate this from our own experiences. How many times we have found that if have prepared well for an exam or interview, then during the interview we seem to be able to synthesize right answers based on the fundamentals even to the questions to which we do not know the answer directly. It's amazing. We feel good about our ability to think on our feet. But, the point to be recognized that it was our meticulous preparation which fine tuned our mind to serve us better. We can also validate the reverse phenomenon when we do not prepare well. So, sincerity in effort provides a lot of positive leverage. It not only helps us recall what we know but also enables us to connect disparate dots to develop one cohesive picture. Our glue gun will be firing at a rapid rate gluing together all points.




Cheers!




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