Picture by Caprice
Miller
“I
will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift
up my hands.” – Psalm 63:4
It’s hard to see how this guy would not get
the attention of passersby. Who wouldn’t
have a double-take of a 50 foot blue gorilla waiving his hands in the air? At that point, we have a choice of
reactions. We can either speed past this
monster because it looks like it wants to eat us OR we could stop at the
establishment it has taken residence atop of and see what this “Grand Opening”
is all about. Whatever decision is made,
the point is that you are not going to miss this thing. It is getting a reaction out of us one way or
another. This is basically marketing
101. Getting the attention of a
potential costumer is step 1. Bringing them
in to the establishment is step 2 and helping them to realize what you have is
what they can’t live without is step 3.
When you look around at our society today,
this technic is being used from the simplest of technics to the most outrageous. Whatever it is, our goal is to make people
want what we have. It is human nature to
just be drawn to things that entice us so much that we can’t help but check it
out at least. And if it is really
compelling, we can become consumed with it.
That’s really what worship is.
Whoa! Isn’t that supposed to be
reserved for God? Worship is actually a part
of our design. We were created with a
desire to worship, be consumed by, be in fellowship with, to follow our
creator. But, with anything meant for
God’s purposes, the enemy has a way of hijacking it and twisting it to make it
something else. Today, we can easily
find ourselves worshipping a sports team, a celebrity or even the pursuit of
the all-mighty dollar (commonly referred to as “success”). We don’t exactly call the action “worship”,
but upon closer examination, if we are honest with ourselves, it’s
worship. We become captivated by it, our
attention is immediately drawn to anything about it, we want to learn as much
as we can about it, it’s what we talk about the most, it’s what gets us
excited. By definition, “to feel an
adoring reverence or regard for
(any person or thing).”
(according to dictionary.com), we
worship.
So, what does worship have to do
with marketing 101 anyway? Well, if we
have something that we know will be life altering for anyone who has it, we
should never keep that a secret. And yet,
somehow many have decided that when it comes to letting others know about the
amazingness of God, “marketing” is off limits.
But when we think about it, there is no better product to market than a relationship
with our Creator through Jesus Christ. We
have to realize that our very lives and what He has done for us is
marketing. We should understand that if
we follow Him, our lives are supposed to be as such that if someone looks at
us, they want what we have. They wonder
how we can praise and have joy in the midst of certain circumstances. They wonder why we choose to be in His house
each weekend and during the week. They wonder
where some of the encouraging words we offer come from. We can all be used as God’s marketing tools,
if we allow ourselves to. We have to ask ourselves though, is our
relationship with Him close enough to be used to attract someone else? We have something in our lives so much more
worthy to market than what is in our world.
Don’t limit how God can use you by not sharing it. Praise His name in private as well as in
public. Love out loud to show His love
for others. Let others see that you have
something they need for themselves – a relationship with their Creator.
