I Have a Reputation to Protect

                In one week I saw the whole spectrum.

                In one corner of the ring we have an earthquake in Japan where thousands of people are dying, lives are being upturned, and God is blamed for doing it all.

                In another corner we have Mardi Gras on the streets of New Orleans where sex and drunkenness run rampant while God is blamed for trying to take away everyone’s fun and freedom.

                Then there are the people with megaphones and picket signs who feel compelled to stand on said streets of New Orleans and scream to the people walking by that God hates them and can’t stand to look on their filth.

                I met a homosexual man who told me God made him that way and was now sending him to Hell for it.

                The consensus seems to be in; God must hate the people of earth.

                He topples innocent cities, robs people of any hint of pleasure they may have and then sends them all to eternal judgment.

                It seems safe to say that God has been terribly misrepresented. Who do we blame for that?

                

                Everybody and their momma has a Facebook page these days. These pages are supposed to represent who we are as people and for the most part, you could look at somebody’s profile and get a good grasp of who they really are. What if we are God’s Facebook page? What if God left it up to us to show the world who He really is, what He likes, and the kind of people He is friends with?

                It is a startling thought that the only image of God the world will ever see is the one painted by Christians. In this painting we have brush strokes from the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, blown up abortion clinics, ministerial scandals and everything else the Church is not proud of doing in our history. If the world has these bad ideas about the God we serve, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

                When a company wants to sell a product they need a face. They want to find someone whose very image embodies everything they want their consumer to want. They want the most attractive, most talented, most awe inspiring person they can find to appear on their commercial and tell everyone how great their product is.

                It is why NIKE wanted Michael Jordan to be their face because they wanted people to associate shoes with being an unstoppable legend. Ballpark Franks wanted him because they wanted people to eat their hot dogs and feel like they were a successful family man grilling like a champion. HANES boxers wanted Michael Jordan because… well, never mind.               

I think we as Christians forget that we were chosen by God to be on His commercials. We forget that we are, whether we like it or not, walking billboards despite how qualified or unqualified we are.

We are nobodies who were chosen from the crowd to embody all that the Creator of the universe is. God needed a face to reach His people and He chose you. How do we return the favor? We usually just put a plastic fish on the back of our car, vote republican and live quiet boring lives. I want more. I want to embody the Facebook page of the living God.

The God I serve loves beyond comprehension. He steps in when people need Him and isn’t anywhere near as concerned with temporary things as He is with the eternal. He easily sees past what people see and knows their hearts and the life they are capable of living. The God I know is dangerous.

It is about time I start painting a better picture of God to the world. What are people going to think of my God when I complain about everything or am cynical about everybody? What are they going to think when my life is predictable and safe? Wouldn’t that mean God wasn’t doing anything worth mentioning? What are people going to think about the love of God when I see thousands of people dying in Japan everyday and do absolutely nothing tangible to help?  What are people going to think about God when all I do is complain that helping Libya is costing us money when I should be on my face praying for the innocent citizens being massacred or better yet, for Muammar Qaddafi- a man whose quest for power is killing himself and his people? Didn’t Jesus die for him too?

I started writing this awhile ago and have had to stop several times. I couldn’t write something that I wasn’t living. I am caught in the chasm between good beliefs and good actions. This blog is my safe place, I can write anything and feel good about myself but it is in the real world where everything counts. Who cares if I can make people laugh or cry with the typing of my fingers if I let countless amounts of people go by me everyday who need to see a truer picture of the God who created them? I want to live my life with the full revelation that God loves the strangers I see at a gas station, tyrannical dictators, and homeless Japanese children. It has to be more than good intentions; the reputation of the King of Kings depends on it. I have to actually do something.

How well does your life represent God’s reputation?