Our life is one big commercial or is it?

I just wrote on the distracting vice of entertainment that often pulls us away from the Main Thing.  Remember that old youth camp line – “Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing.”  It was a call for believers to remember what truly should come #1 in our lives.  In this second part, I would like to write about two more American idols:  Commercialism and Materialism. 

It appears our nation and our lives are turning into one big commercial.  It is 2013 and marketing has taken on a fresh meaning.  Think about a football game.  The game is sponsored by a company.  The halftime show is sponsored by a different company.  And then the play of the game is sponsored by yet another company.  I can’t wait until individual quarters and then every down is brought to us by Taco Bell, Citgo, or some combination of the like.  Today, anything and everything can take place online.  VistaPrint is mass marketing business cards and signs for individual businesses and people to advertise their products.  I, myself, have purchased two 12” by 18” magnetic signs to put on my car to advertise www.allsportstalk.net, an online sports magazine that I write for.  I also purchased a polo shirt and a keychain flashlight. 

Materialism is an idol just the same.  I just watched a video clip where a man is telling another man they already have 4 smartphones, 3 tablets, 2 flat screens or something like that (you catch my drift) and the man is worried about security for all these items.  That’s just the thing.  We become obsessed over the wrong agenda.  Jesus told us to store treasures for ourselves up in heaven where moths and rust would not destroy.  We have come to a point where we value things more than we value the condition of a lost soul. 

It is so easy for the church to buy into this trap.  We adopt a consumer mentality and then the focus comes on pleasing ourselves.  But wait a second…..life can’t be a commercial and neither can church.  Think about it.  As much as we detest commercials, they only last for a brief second.  We pass by a billboard, hear a 30 second radio ad, etc.  But life isn’t like that.  Life has meaning.  Unlike TV shows such as Seinfield and Frasier whose shows were all about the meaningless of life, the Bible says we sow what we reap.  That is why one person can sow eternal life and another eternal destruction.  And as for the Church…..Jesus told Peter he was the rock and that on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (MT. 16:18).  According to Jesus, the Church was not an afterthought. 

Let’s become like Josiah (read my blog entry entitled “Gospel Recovery”) and let’s tear down the high places and idols we see warring within us.  Let’s put Jesus back in his proper place in our life!