day 2315: Over The Top

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

When Nike funded the efforts to break the two-hour Marathon, they also created a shoe and clothing to support the results.  They didn’t break the 2:00:00, but they were close. But, what came from the whole initiative was the reinforcement of Nike’s marketing objective: “Give normal people a taste of how it feels to be elite”.  At face value the aspirational nature of their marketing seems like a good thing.  But, as we know, anything to an extreme can go wrong.  Advertising today is trying to making us something that we are not.  We easily fall for it, but over time, we tire of the message.  It is about then that an authentic piece that recognizes where we are and truly wants to make us better shows up. And those are the ones that we want to purchase the product or service.  It is up to us to know the difference in the types of ads and messaging we create and deliver. By the way, I think Nike does a pretty good job making us to want to be better without leaving the real us behind.

Persecution and ridicule of running counter to the culture has been God’s way from the beginning.  Remember, everyone said Noah was a madman and Paul spent a bunch of time in jail and of course Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for giving us a new way of salvation and life. We are taught that there isn’t any way around being in the world, but we are not to be of it.  With the current news, it may seem ludicrous to us that so many have succumbed to what seems so obviously wrong, but we also must consider that we can fall into the same siren of the culture with what we watch, read, listen or respond.  I am as guilty as anyone as I try to stay in tune with what is trending or catching attention in the current.  However, I do my best, as we all should, to shield ourselves from those areas in our lives that are vulnerable to being taken over the top.  We each personally know what these areas are and must be sure that we are filling our minds and hearts with God’s teaching and spirit and not letting the other stuff move us away from Him, even if it is what everyone else is doing.

Reference: Proverbs 4:23 (New Living Translation)