I am a product of the ’90s. I was fortunate enough to be one of the last zillion models born in the 80′s, but let’s face it, I can’t claim the 80′s. No, I grew up with boy bands, grunge, jelly sandals, furbies, and Are You Afraid of the Dark (and a whole bunch of other classically wonderful Nick shows All That, Salute Your Shorts, Clarissa Knows it All… memories). Mmmm it was a good time.
A popular fashion when I was about 10 was this WWJD apparel. It was as big as N’Sync, and it was everywhere, bracelets, necklaces, and all that fun stuff. When something questionable would happen it was well WWJD? Want to sneak out of the house to go to that party mom said no to, WWJD? As silly as it may sound or was during the time it was a positive trend encouraging us to do as we are called to do. We called, as followers of Christ, to do as Jesus did. Sometimes I wonder if I still had my favorite WWJD necklace (that I begged and begged for) if I would think twice about hollering at the slow cars in front of mine? Maybe it doesn’t make a difference, who knows? But I think little outward reminders be it bows on your fingers or what have you, really can help make you think twice before you do something unkind.
If you’ve walked through the building during working hours recently you may have heard some…. how you say….. interesting music coming from Narcie’s office. Narcie has recently discovered Pandora, and more specifically the Disney station on Pandora. Oh yes, we have been blasting the Disney station for probably more than a month now, and it drives Andrew Wilson crazy (which let’s face it, is half the fun). A song that comes on relatively frequently hails from the movie The Jungle Book. Fabulous movie. It’s called “I Want to be Like You”, and it is about these monkeys that want to be like the “man cub”. They want to talk and walk like him. They are tired of being monkeys and want to be like Mogley. What’s interesting is that in the song, they say that they are at the top of the monkeys the “VIP”, but they really want to be like this man. This may be a stretch, but our walk with Christ is the same way. We can be at the very top, the richest, most handsome, most popular person on the Earth, and something is going to be missing. We still need to be like Christ. We still need that presence in our lives. In the song, the monkey’s say that they desire one thing, “red man’s fire”. They are asking for the secret to the fire. The secret to our lives is Jesus. That’s the end game. Living our lives as Jesus would have will not make them easier, per se, however it will make them lives worth living. It will make them bountiful, loving, amazingly full lives. A life that you would be proud to live. There will be sucky times. I can’t lie. We haven’t been promised a bumpless road, but somehow even the suckiness gets worked out to the glory of God. So I encourage you to bring back the WWJD bracelets and sweatshirts if you need to, so that you may walk more intentionally like our God who has so lovingly made us.
Peace and Blessings
Erica Oliveira
