Undercover

You've seen them around town, those rolling billboards that change any beater into a magnificent display of artistry. I even thought about getting one for my old Honda before we sold it.

"Is that a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass? Well no, it's a steamy, cheesy slice of hot and ready pizza!"

It's the vehicle wrap: the cost-effective and broad-reaching advertising and marketing method. Did you know that one delivery truck with an effective vehicle wrap can generate millions of impressions? At least that is what the salesman will tell you.

Some of us, uh, I mean some of you, spend a lot of time deciding what we are going to wear for the day. We match, iron, tuck, press, shine, all so that we will look good when we are out in public. Then we grab our wrap, slip it on, head out the door, and viola...we cover up our true selves. We also carry wraps around in our pockets and purses just in case an advertising opportunity presents itself or we need to display a different product for our viewing audience.

There's Jane from the office. Better put on my "so good to see you" wrap.
There's the preacher. Better put on my "looking forward to Sunday" wrap.
Here comes you know who. Better put on my "I'm having a fake phone conversation so you won't talk to me" wrap.

Or how about this:

Time to go home. Better take off my "do anything for anyone" wrap and put on my "I've worked hard all day so you do it" wrap.

Those wraps are pretty convenient and we can be so creative with the design. But sometimes the impression we are generating is not the one that serves the best interest of ourselves and others. We need to practice more truth in advertising.
I know a place where you can find some inexpensive, attractive wraps that will benefit a lot of people, including yourself...

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Colossians 3:12-14

No other form of advertising offers more return on your investment.

Son Glasses

Have you ever felt like Thomas? "If I could only see the evidence God then I would believe."

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." John 20:24

When I am on this side of a situation or circumstance that has tested my faith it is easy for me to look on that event and ask, "How could I have doubted or been uncertain?" My faith is much stronger today than it was even three months ago but the daily attention that a growing faith requires is sometimes very challenging to manage.

I have to learn to stop squinting through life. You know, like when a light is shining in your face so bright that you can't fully open your eyes - when you see someone having a physically painful experience - when a circumstance is so hard to watch that we must nearly shut our eyes.

Compare your life to that of the apostles:

• They stared at a hillside full of thousands of hungry people and asked what they were to do.
• They were tossed about in a torrential storm and cried out with fear.
• They saw time and again the power of Jesus revealed in healing and other miracles and still they did not instinctively turn their challenge over to Christ.

I find myself too many times seeking first my own solution to a challenge in life before taking that before my God. As the Casting Crowns song says

Oh what I would do to have the kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in, onto the crashing sea. To step out of my comfort zone into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is...

My prayer is that God will open the eyes of my faith to the way He has and does work in my life so that I might be an effective and powerful witness to His love and grace. I have to look at life through the eyes of Jesus.

Put your Son glasses on and open your eyes of faith to a world around you filled with possibilities to do and receive good. Squinting gives you crows feet anyway.