Meditation: Selling Delusions

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
1 John 3:2-3

Recently, I was flipping through a catalog, the main product
of which was undergarments for women (no, not the really risqué catalog for
skinny, young women). Catalogs for all sorts of clothing arrive in the mail
regularly, and sometimes, when I’m lollygagging around, I look through them.
There is usually nothing I particularly need, but that doesn’t mean I can’t
find something on which to spend money. So, I opened this catalog, and right in
the front, the company proudly announced its motto, I guess, starting with this
line: “We believe the right bra can change your world in an instant.” That is a
direct quote. Speaking from decades of experience in this area, I can say with
some degree of authority that that statement is not true.

Truly? Underwear can change one’s entire world? How small
and ridiculous must one’s world be for underclothes to serve as the catalyst
for transformation? This merchant is not unusual. These sorts of messages
permeate our days and cheapen our lives. Another advertiser I noticed is
selling cars by suggesting one can defy the laws of human nature with the car.
Such a claim is patently absurd. By definition, the laws of human nature are laws – unchanging, predetermined, irrevocable.
Does the car allow humans to fly? The suggestion in the commercial was that the
car made the man something more than a husband and dad and hard-working
employee. What could possibly be a higher calling for a man than to be a
devout, loving, involved husband, father, and worker? Apparently, there is a
car that makes a man something else. Are men truly nothing more than the illusion
of attractive due to a cool ride that costs a lot of money?

Everywhere we look these messages inundate us, and their
goal is to get us to buy their product. Sadly, the impact is far more subtle
and insidious than even additional debt. Underclothes and cars, houses and
hobbies, all are sold to us under the guise of escape from who we are to some
illusory dream of who we wish we were. What sad, little creatures we are
becoming… The family of God sold for the right cosmetics or the best golf club…

Brothers and sisters in Christ, remember who you are! You are made in the image of the Most High
God, created for a glory beyond compare. You are invited to purify yourself,
that the likeness of Christ can grow in you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Your destiny reveals this world as the dead-end that it repeatedly proves
itself to be. I am not opposed to enjoying this world, but women are not
measured by the underclothes they wear, and the measure of a man is not the car
he drives. The very thing that makes us uniquely human is derided by
advertisers who want us to believe that a product will make us something more
than the humanity that in Christ is wondrous already. The promise written by
the Apostle John is that we will be like Christ Jesus in glory, resurrected to
a being of divine majesty and beauty. The fulfillment of that promise is not
found in a single thing that can be purchased on this planet.

If we want to be transformed, and if we truly desire to defy
human nature, we can choose to live out of our birth into the family of God. You
are born of God, a child in His family, and your life is more precious to your
Father than you can even begin to understand. Only the Spirit of God can change
our world, and only the life of God given to us can defy the human nature that
confines and plagues us. And all of this is given to you from our Father’s
unlimited generosity.

I encourage you to do an inventory of your life. Ask
yourself what you purchased for identity and appearances. The world competes
with the Gospel all the time, encouraging us to chase delusions and find
ourselves in the inane. Sadly, too many of us succumb to the temptation. You
are so much more than advertisers would have you believe. Look to Christ for
your value, for you will discover its immeasurable, and look to Christ for
meaning, for you were created for great things, more than you can begin to
guess.