Image is Everything!

My wife and I have partial season tickets to the Kansas City Royals baseball games...somebody has to support them! Actually, I’ve been a Royals fan for so long, I can remember when they were good! Our seats are on the front row, just past first base, where the Royals come out to warm up, stretch, etc. right before the games. When the players come out to get ready for the game, it’s customary for autograph hounds, primarily kids, to start to gather along the railing, hoping to get a signed souvenir from their favorite player.

A few years ago, we were watching the gathering of the fans at the railing when a very loud adult male barged into the group of kids and started hollering the name of a very popular Royals player, one which the kids seemed to adore more the most. The player, playing catch with another player, turned and seemingly recognized the man. He started over towards the railing, thus creating an excited frenzy amongst the little fans.

The player tossed the ball he had in the direction of the adult fan. In front of the adult fan was a little boy about 10 years old with a glove on. He reached up to catch the ball and just before it landed in his glove, the adult leaned over the kid and snatched it out of the air. The little boy’s look of disappointment was heart breaking. I, along with several other fans in the immediate area, voiced our displeasure at the fan’s actions. The fan said immediately the player was throwing him the ball, not the disappointed little boy.

You see, the adult fan claimed about the player, "I’m his pastor." He then departed for his seat, snatched ball in hand...Now, let me say this, the player might very well have been tossing the man the ball. But the image he created that evening was of a grown man grabbing a token souvenir from a kid. To make matters worse, he then proclaim it all okay because, after all, he was his pastor. The image of Christianity took a direct hit that evening.

Several years back, there was a ad campaign which declared "Image is everything." For Christians, it might not be everything, but it’s a pretty darn important concept. More and more, Christians are under the magnified viewing of a increasingly skeptical world. The old saying "the only Jesus some people might see, is the Jesus they see in you" is one that we should heed daily.

1 Timothy 4:12 tells us:
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Think of your Christian life receiving a report card, and the five areas in the scripture are your subjects...give yourself a grade in:

1. Speech
2. Conduct
3. Love
4. Faith
5. Purity

I don’t know about you, but there have been periods in my life that I wasn’t exactly on God’s
honor roll. This is really a school that we’ll never graduate from either. The expectations we assume as Christians are life long. As Paul told the elders of the church of Ephesus in Acts 20:24
"...I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me..."

My challenge to you is this: look into your spiritual mirror and check your Christian image using the 5 subjects above. Does the speech you practice reflect the Christ you profess? Does your conduct cast light on Christian values? Is your life pure and full of faith? Do you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind? How’s it going in that "love your neighbor as your self" class? You might give yourself a failing grade, but the school year never ends...today’s a new semester!