I can remember taking a Beth Moore study a few years ago and during one of the sessions she really hit home about the ridiculous way companies use sex to sell their products. Her complaint in particular involved a breath mint. In only the way Beth could tell a story (which had audience members and video viewers laughing through tears) she tells of finding the mints in a convenient store and desperately interrogating the poor store clerk about their description: Sexy Mints. If you are familiar with Beth, you can probably hear her voice now, that high pitched Texas accent asking, "Sexy??!!! Sexy??!!! Exactly what makes this mint SEXY??!!! And what makes this mint sexier than other mints???? Tell me!" She adds that both her daughters had to drag her out of the store as she still pleaded from her soap box about the - ahem - sexy mints.
Last year, I had a similar experience. Although I did not confront the blue vested Wal Mart employee stocking shelves on that aisle, I came just shy of having a soap box vent when I discovered Degree deodorant's fragrance Sexy Intrigue. Really? I mean....it's for our arm pits! First, what is so intriguing about arm pits? Second, is there a real need for them to be sexy? Clean shaven? Yes. Free of white residue? Of course. Sexy?! Mercy, no.
Gimmicks to get us to buy products are everywhere. From using sex (or lust) to sell everything from breath mints to cars, or some one's dramatic weight loss experience to sell videos and exercise equipment, to late night infomercial demonstrations that make products look soooo easy to use (and they'll throw in that extra "whatever" - a $56 value - for free!). It's all about making the sell....whatever it takes to make a profit.
There is a different kind of gimmick that gets me, though. I mean, gets me hot under the collar. I've seen it in various forms but recently, I had enough. I was shopping at a local Christian book store when I came upon the display. Right there among the Beth Moore and James Dobson and Max Lucado books, I let it vent! I didn't overdo it - but I did let the store clerk know just how ridiculous it was! The product: hand sanitizer. The gimmick: The Word of God.
I'm not kidding. The wording on the package may have been tongue in cheek, but it did not have me laughing. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." The scripture highlighted was from David's Psalm 51, "Create in me a clean heart, O God." Now what, you may ask - as I did - does Psalm 51 have to do with hand sanitizer? Or, what does hand sanitizer have to do with Psalm 51? I believe these are fair questions. The answer to both is a resounding NOTHING!!!! However, the company making these ingenious little things wants their hand sanitizer to remind you to keep your heart clean, too. ..... (Crickets chirping) ......
Yes. That's right. ..... (Crickets again) ..... Wow. I am so thankful for this product. How else would I ever remember to consider the SIN CONDITION of my heart without the trusty aide of...drum rollllll.... hand sanitizer! I didn't know whether to laugh or vomit. I choose to laugh, less messy. But I didn't find it funny. I found it absurd and offensive that God's Word would be used for something like that. Even though it is sold in a Christian book store, it is evidence of the growing indifference even we Christians have toward the holiness of God's Word - the holiness of God Himself. We are allowing ourselves to be more and more desensitized to things that should make us blush or ignite righteous indignation. Our plum line has become our feelings. Dangerous territory. My pastor said in a sermon recently, regarding our feelings, "God will not do His deepest work in the shallowest part of our being." And yet, the shallow end is where we often stay. There is less work there, less chance for actually having to swim and set a pace. We don't even have to dog-paddle ... just sit on the side with our feet in the water. As a result, the things that should matter to us just don't anymore. Why bother learning the pool rules when all we plan to do is soak our feet? No need to learn to swim when only our ankles are getting wet.
The company making the hand sanitizer is counting on our feelings. They are counting on our not being able to distinguish the travesty of abusing God's Word over the clever packaging. After all, it is for our good, both health wise as well as spiritually, right? Clean hands (don't pass those germs around), and with every squirt from the container we are drawn to consider our own hearts. I'll just say what I said aloud in the store this weekend, "You've GOT to be kidding me!" Using God's Word as a gimmick? Where's a cat of nine tales when you need one?
The thing is we must be careful with our own lives. We can just as easily allow our identity as a Christian to become a gimmick. We can allow it to say things about us vs. pointing others toward God. We can allow it to make us feel worthy of self built pedestals (or those built by our peers) vs. getting real about our own sinfulness and seeing others as standing on level ground at the foot of the cross. If we are not abiding in Jesus, we can become desensitized to the blood price that was paid for our redemption. And just as the hand sanitizer manufacturer is counting on our indifferent feelings toward God's Word in order to sell their product, Satan is counting on our indifference toward Jesus' sacrificial death to sell us the lie that we are doing just fine in the shallow water. No need to get wet. Just stay dry. He is counting on our indifference to the holiness of God to help us justify how we feel rather than to obey what God says. Don't fall for it!!! Don't place your trust in your identity - place your trust in Jesus, the One in Whom your identity is found!
Hmmm ...... maybe that hand sanitizer served a purpose after all! But I'm still not buying it!
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You." Psalm 51: 10 -13
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