Ed Dobson’s “The Year of Living Like Jesus”

Dobson, Edward G., The Year of Living Like Jesus: My journey of Discovering What Jesus Would Really Do, Grand Rapid: Zondervan, 2009.

After hearing about A.J. Jacobs’ attempt to live out every rule in the Bible as literally as possible, pastor, professor and author Ed Dobson (not to be confused with James Dobson) embarks on a journey to do the same thing, almost. Dobson, who used to teach at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and was a prominent member of the Moral Majority years ago, takes Jacobs’ idea and applies it to living like Jesus for a full 365 days. This book is part journal and part confessional for his journey.

Dobson not only tries to live by the Mosaic laws and traditions Jesus would have lived by, like growing a huge beard, following a kosher diet, observing Jewish festivals and High Holy days, etc., but he also tries to live by the teachings of Jesus, giving to the poor and praying the Lord’s Prayer. Dobson tried to live like and according to Jesus.

The best part about this book are the crazy stories Ed gets to tell and is his unabashed honesty about his struggles to reconcile the teaching of Jesus with his fundamentalist background as well as his current life as a semi-retired pastor coping with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), more popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

One such story was when Dobson tried to fast and spend time in the “wilderness” like Jesus did in Matthew 4. Restricted by his ALS, Ed couldn’t do the 40 day deal, but tried to spend the night in prayer and fasting. He started out well by getting his camp set up and praying the “Jesus Prayer” hundreds of times. Things got a little complicated when he found out the camping stove he brought was not actually in the box. Not a big deal since he was fasting, but reality became apparent when Ed couldn’t make a cup of coffee! This threw him for a loop and ended up being a contributing factor, along with muscle cramps to why he packed up his gear and headed home at nearly midnight (“After all, Jesus didn’t have ALS.”).

It was equally interesting to read how living like Jesus affected Ed’s views about going to bars to hang out, his decision to pray the Catholic Rosary, and how this former right-wing Republican fundamentalist decided which candidate should get his vote for United States President.

Dobson has only ever voted Republican in the past, however his guiding question in the 2008 election year was not, “Who would Jesus vote for?” but, “Who most exemplified Jesus’ teachings of loving our enemies as well as the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed, and who was most committed to peacemaking?” Along the way, Ed does not hide his internal conflict with peer pressure wondering what his friends would think of him if he voted Democrat for once.

Another story that documents Ed’s journey has to do with loving the poor and being generous without restraint. One day a disabled Veteran comes to his front door looking for a few dollars in order to travel to the VA hospital. The Vet even has an official looking letter stating the details of his appointment. So, Ed, wanting to love like Jesus, gives the guy money. A few months later the same guy, with the same story and the same letter comes back to his front door. So, what does Dobson do? After a few seconds of thought revolving around the unfathomable odds of this coincidence, Dobson reaches into his pocket and gives the guy whatever money he had.

However, none of these hit home for me like Eds’ commitment to prayer. Ed moves past his traditional church experience of prayer by reaching into, not only the Catholic tradition, but also Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism. Dobson’s journey is spent praying scripted or memorized prayers hundreds and hundreds of times each day. He was even willing to employ the use of an Orthodox prayer rope and Anglican prayer beads. This commitment to pray inspired me. Soon after hearing about Ed’s devotion to prayer I, too, started to memorize some of the prayers I found in the book. I found myself communicating more to God than just a wish list and communicating more often through these prayers.

In the beginning Dobson’s goal was simply to live like Jesus and according to Jesus in order to facilitate his own spiritual development. By the time the year was over and Ed was being interviewed by newspaper and television reporters, his goal had become twofold: to inspire people to live out the teachings of Jesus and to learn those teaching by reading the Bible. “If even one did that, then my year was a success,” Ed writes in the last chapter. What started out as an experience for growth eventually turned into an exercise for the benefit of others.