You may have seen those bracelets with the initials W.W.J.D. woven or inscribed on them. Each one symbolizes a promise that the wearer will keep this question near his or her heart: "What would Jesus do?" According to the WWJD Web site (www.wwjd.com), over 14 million bracelets have been sold.
The WWJD movement began when a Generation X youth group in Holland, Michigan, read Charles M. Sheldon's novel In His Steps, written in 1896. In this book, a vagrant comes to a small, conservative town and asks different folks in the community for help, but no one responds. Even the minister is too busy to offer aid because he's working on next week's sermon, entitled "Following Christ." The next Sunday, the stranger shows up in church, stands before the congregation, and says: "What do you mean when you sing 'I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way?' ... what does following Jesus mean?... It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But what would Jesus do?" Charles M. Sheldon, In His Steps (Uhrichville, OH: Barbour Publishing, Inc., 1993), pp. 8–9 . Shortly after this, he collapses and dies.
At next week's service, the minister asks the members of his church to pledge not to do anything for one year without first asking themselves, "What would Jesus do?" They should promise, he says, to follow Jesus' footsteps the best they can, regardless of the consequences for doing so. In His Steps, which eventually sold over 30 million copies, goes on to tell how those who took the pledge were touched and transformed by this new approach to life.
