Christmas – Page 2 – WordServe Water Cooler

Would you trust a Christian?

How about a Puritan?

A Quaker then?

On cold winter mornings before I head out, I love a bowl of hot steaming porridge oats, with a dash of maple syrup.

With this in my belly, I am ready for anything the day may throw at me…well, at least until the mid-morning coffee break.

Look at the image of the Quaker man on the box. He’s adorable, trustworthy, decent, a law-abiding citizen. His smile is certainly reassuring. Admiring his rosy cheeks? Well, he could be Santa Claus.

His face says it all. Buy my products and you’ll feel as good as I look!

I was in my local supermarket recently, when my keen eye spotted a bargain. I saw an offer on the shelves that was just too good to miss. A double-size box of my favourite porridge oats, with twice the usual contents, for a knock-down, give-away price of 30% below normal cost. My hand flashed out quicker than lightning. The big box was in my cart. The next day, ready for breakfast, I broke into my double-sized box of….what? I was shocked, then embarrassed at being so gullible. I trusted the Quaker man to deliver on his promise. What I got was, yes, a double-sized box, but inside it was 60% air! The actual contents came up to the level (take a look at the first picture) of the top of the wooden post.

As we head towards to the Christmas season when billions of dollars change hands, maybe we should all take a step back and reflect upon the potential of marketing and its ability to persuade us to buy products that patently don’t live up to the advertising.

Just for the sheer sake of it, I did a trawl through Bible Gateway to check if the following words and phrases ever appeared in the Bible.

Marketing, Selling, Sales Strategy, Search Engine,

Keywords, Customer Centric, Optimization.

You guessed it. None of them have a place in the Good Book. As writers, of course, we need marketing to get our message out there and reach communities, whether they be local or global. But we need to be discerning and careful to avoid the trap of believing and buying into the same secular trickery that sells anything to everyone. We should not be inveigled by the World, the Flesh and the Devil. Not be seduced to sell our sacred message by secular means.

I have often pondered this: What would I say, if God said these words to me?

”Fred, your book is great, but it will only sell one copy. The person who reads it will be changed and will become my servant and take the Gospel to millions of people all around the world, and all because he read your book. Alternatively, I can have your book sell millions of copies, you will be rich beyond your dreams, but only a few will be saved. My son, it’s your free choice.”

What do we ultimately want from writing books? Fame and fortune? Or to be walking in God’s will?

Of course, the Lord has a strategy to communicate his message to the world. Undeniably, he uses the power of the Word to get the message across to the greatest number in the most effective way. And he uses great orators to reach the lost, but persuasion is not their business. Their business is communicating the truth about the Son. The way God markets his message turns human wisdom and cleverness on its head.

When God wanted to free the Israelites from Pharaoh’s tyranny he sent a guilt-ridden, reticent, stuttering, fearful man called Moses to get the job done.

When God wanted to proclaim the coming of Jesus Christ he used an eccentric wild man, dressed in animal skins, eating locusts and honey in the desert.

When God wanted to save the world, he sent his all-powerful and eternal Son to be born naked in a stable for animals. As a human child he was vulnerable, weak, dependent and unable to live without his mother and father’s protection and care.

When God wanted to reconcile us to him, he allowed his Son be crucified, killed on a cross of wood, dying as a common criminal rejected and alone.

I wonder what the top marketing gurus and the best advertising companies would have come up with, if God had asked them to create a package to ‘sell salvation to sinners?’

They might have come up with a great sales strategy and a winning message to achieve customer optimization, perhaps throwing in an unforgettable slogan, an amusing jingle too… yet somehow, like the Quaker box of porridge oats I bought, I think it would fallen short, been so much air and less substance. I think their sales plan would have missed the target, somehow betrayed the truth, don’t you?

As a mother of two elementary aged school children and a pediatric ER nurse–the events in Newtown, CT crushed me. I could imagine the terror of those parents waiting to know whether or not their children were okay. I’ve helped deliver the news of a child dying, and then grieved with all those involved.

Over the days and weeks to come, many questions will be asked. People will cry for policy changes. New gun laws. Should there be armed officers at each and every school? What about the shape of the mental health system?

These are valid points of discussion on many levels, but I think they are symptoms of a problem most don’t like to talk about. There is evil in the world. And this truth cannot be ignored or explained away. So what overcomes evil in our fallen world?

I was both impressed and troubled by an interview Dianne Sawyer did with one of the teachers who survived that day. She was amazing. Hustled her children into a small bathroom. Barricaded all of them inside. Kept her calm. Did not allow anyone in until the police keyed themselves inside. She was one of the first classrooms inside the building and expected that she may end up a face in a newspaper, too.

A true hero among many who placed themselves at risk.

What troubled me was a point in the interview when she shared that she told the children she loved them. That she wanted them all to hear something their parents would say. And then questioned if that was the right thing to do.

Is this really where we are? Is this the true dilemma in our response to tragedy…wondering if expressing love is the right thing to do?

I heard the press report that people in Newtown were taking down Christmas decorations. I sympathize with their position. They don’t feel like celebrating. Can’t feel joy when so many others are suffering. A town coming together in shared grief. Our hearts cry with them on so many levels.

And this is where I also grieve. Christmas is about celebrating Christ’s birth. We get lost in the commercialism of it and sometimes, too, I want to pack up all the decorations, and forget gift giving because it’s so far removed from the point of it all.

That God was born into this world to bring light and peace. To one day end evil and suffering. The beginning of a life long journey of love for all of us.

There are certainly no easy answers. I am praying for those in Newtown.

There is light. There is hope. There is God’s indescribable love, even amidst the evil we wish would never touch us. It’s why there is Christmas.