‘Living Like Jesus’ was author’s goal

By Charles Honey Comments 0
Published: October 10, 2009

A scraggly man stood at Ed Dobson’s door, asking for money. He said he was a Vietnam vet and needed bus fare for a medical appointment. The problem: It was the same story the guy told three months earlier, when Dobson gave him $15. Dobson figured he blew that on booze and would do so again.

Problem No. 2: Jesus said, "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” This time, Dobson gave him $20.

Living like Jesus isn’t easy. Dobson found that out when he spent 2008 emulating his spiritual master. He chronicles his journey in "The Year of Living Like Jesus,” published by Zondervan.

Dobson says his Jesus year was a litany of mistakes and failures, whether botching his kosher diet with sour cream and chili or doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

"I don’t think I did everything right or had all the answers. But I did try as best I could to wrestle with Jesus’ teachings.”

Dobson’s eight-year bout with Lou Gehrig’s disease has been a wrestling match of its own. It has taken a toll on his body but hasn’t dimmed his good humor, deep faith or strong spirit. Those were assets, especially after Election Day.

Dobson’s vote for President Obama — his first ever for a Democratic candidate — brought scorn from many conservatives. Dobson is, after all, a former megachurch pastor who helped run the Moral Majority before later disavowing the marriage between evangelicals and Republican politics.

Less noisily, moderate conservatives thanked him for being public about a vote they cast secretly. His book devotes a chapter to his decision.

Author A.J. Jacobs can relate. His best-selling book about obeying the Hebrew Scriptures, "The Year of Living Biblically,” inspired Dobson’s version.

"I definitely admire his bravery,” Jacobs said. "It’s extremely difficult to live biblically.”

Jacobs said he thinks Dobson’s book, like his, will inspire some readers to try things such as giving up gossip for a month. "You don’t have to grow a huge beard and walk around in a robe and sandals,” Jacobs said. "But it will improve your life if you try it.”

Dobson continues some of his Jesus ways, including praying words of Scripture, such as "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.”

He came to a greater appreciation of other faiths through praying the Catholic rosary, the Orthodox prayer rope and participating in Jewish sabbaths.

Focusing on Jesus also helped him deal with his disease. "Having read the Gospels over and over, you have the idea that God limited Himself to human flesh in the person of Jesus,” he says. "So the frustrations I have on a daily basis — I find encouragement from the fact Jesus must have faced the same thing.”