Keeping Up

There is a phrase people often use…”keeping up with the Jones.” For most it is a somewhat sly remark implying that one is either attempting to “one up” someone else in terms of possessions or in some form of “showing off.” Keeping up with someone or some group has been a national pastime for quite a while. In fact, advertisers have been in the business for a very long time attempting to “create” your sense of need for something based upon their implied importance for having those things bringing you some never to be had “feeling” or “satisfaction.” Religious and spiritual language have often been used by such advertisers in the name of commercial endeavor. Often you would be invited to buy something to “bring good things to life.” At other times you were told you could experience something as “smooth, satisfying, and delicious” when it was “offensive, smelly, and life-threatening.” More often used were the subtle implications that having certain things would make you more acceptable. Brand names were marks of success. Logos on shirts or pockets meant you were “cooler” or more likely to succeed among your peers. The great “sell” has so often played to the emotions of the least secure individuals to convince them to buy something that would “improve” or “beautify” or make them more attractive to those of the opposite sex.
“Keeping up” has been a frustrating pursuit for all those who indulge in such rituals of behavior. Even if the “toys are gathered” those who have the most don’t win. They just have more broken toys in the end and sadly many have broken lives, distorted views of what is really valuable, and often a poor sense of their own self-worth.
God has sent his son, Jesus to inform us about so much of this. He told us to understand that God knows what we need. Having what we need, however, begins with looking first for God to be first in our lives. To know Jesus as your Lord marks the beginning of putting all the things of the world in the right perspective. It will also give you some wisdom about valuing other people in the way God values them. God’s love for each of us marks the fact that He wants all of us to know the blessings of his provision of eternal life through faith in Jesus. God invites us to understand that we are invited to share in the inheritance of heaven…the eternal and abundant life that begins when we look to him in faith and trust for our future. If we would be interested in helping our world keep up to speed on that good news…we would be doing what Christ has called his followers to be about.