God's Marketing Campaign

You've all seen beer commercials before. A lot of them have a common theme: average Joes drinking a particular beer and beautiful women fawning all over them. For the women, skin-care commercials have before & after pics and sometimes a strong, handsome man getting lost in the woman's eyes. Essentially, commercials fall into one of two categories: those that show us what we want, implying that we could have it if we buy their product, and those that make us laugh.

As humans, we're naturally selfish. We don't do much unless it somehow benefits us. Sure, we give money to charities, we offer our time to the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, and we offer our seats to little old ladies on the bus, but under each of these, there's some motive. Sometimes, it's just that we want to feel good about ourselves because we were taught that doing these things is right. Sometimes, it's to show off to a certain girl or guy or appear to be a good person to one's friends. Sometimes, it's an effort to advance ourselves by putting something good on our resumes. Rarely is the act completely selfless.

What this means is we have to have a reason to follow God. We have to get some benefit out of it for us to do it. The real benefit is getting to know God, but it is the thought of an eternity in Heaven or of peace in our lives here that really draws people.

That's where you (if you're a Christian) and I come in. We are God's marketing campaign. Others look at us and watch us more closely than we normally think they do. They want to know if Christianity is more than fire insurance. They want something that will really change their lives.

Gandhi went to the UK as a young man to go to school. In reality, he wanted to observe Christians and was thinking of becoming one. After watching the Christians around him and seeing they were no different from those who weren't, he decided to never become a Christian.

I'm not just talking about Christians sinning. The world sees our sins, yes, but unless we demand perfection of everyone and beat them over the head with the Bible every time they fail, they can tolerate our sins so long as we try our best to not commit them. I think it is more so that they see how we handle difficulties in our lives. The world looks at us and thinks, "They believe in a God they think created the universe, yet they're worried about finding a job? Is their God really so small?" When we're depressed, worried, or angry to the extent that it is taking over our lives, what message are we sending to the world? We're saying our God is not big enough or does not care enough about us to help us get through what the world throws our way.

Why would the world want what we have if what we have doesn't help us?

It's unreasonable to say that we should always be happy, even when our world is falling apart all around us. We're still human and, as long as we're on this earth, always will be. Yet Paul was able to sing after he'd been beaten and thrown into prison. He was stoned and left for dead, got up, dusted himself off, and the next day went to the next town to continue preaching. The Bible doesn't say God healed him instantly. He might have been in incredible pain. But his God was bigger than his problems.

God tells us to not fear 365 times in the Bible. Philippians 4:7 says, "And the peace of God, which passes understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." John 14:27 tells us, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." And then the end of Matthew tells us to not worry about tomorrow.

The last point I have to make is that sin and fear are intimately tied together. When we sin, there's a root cause of us not trusting God to give us what is best for us. We either believe somewhere that He is holding back on us or that we know better than He does what is in our best interests. We fear not having these things unless we get them our way. A perfect trust in God would lead to a perfect life. One would have no reason to go outside God's will if one trusted perfectly that God's will was the best thing for their life. Obviously, this is not possible for us; we still have our spiritual myopia. What is possible, though, is living a life more like Paul's, more like commercials for the power of Christ. People want perfect lives, but what is more amazing to them is when we can take our imperfect lives and live them with a peace that they can't understand.

You are God's marketing campaign on this earth. What message are you sending?