I was out driving today on my way to work, and I saw a car that was completely wrapped in a giant ad. I immediately assumed that the driver worked for the company that was so colorfully displayed all over his vehicle. Then I remembered a few years ago seeing ads where big businesses were hiring people who were willing to wrap their vehicles like that. Basically, it turned their cars into mobile billboards in order to attract more customers. I don't know if they still do that. If they do, I suppose then it’s possible that he wasn’t actually an official representative of the company, even though he was advertising their business nonetheless.
This got me thinking: What am I advertising?
Never before in all of history have our own personal lives been under so much scrutiny. It used to be the things we did at home and had for dinner and what we wore to go out and our every thought and comment - was just for us and those close to us. Now, with social media and AI always listening and tiny computers in our hands connecting us to not just close family and friends but the entire world - it seems as though everyone knows everything about us.
Add that to all of the regular scrutiny in our everyday lives. There are certainly people who observe us at school or at work or at church or in the grocery store. Nothing is private any longer. We are constantly being observed and scrutinized.
It's important therefore to consider - what are our lives saying? We, too, are like mobile billboards. Our words and actions, even our thoughts shared on X, communicate something about who we are, what we believe, and what we think is important.
If we call ourselves Christian, then the billboard of our lives should declare Christ. After all, Christian means, "little Christ." People should be able to see Christ in us. Through us. We should be a walking advertisement for His goodness.
I know we shrug this off sometimes. We rationalize it away, saying, "Well, no one's perfect and God loves me anyway."
Which is true, to a point. Problem is, sometimes we use this shrug off as an excuse for living however we want. We use it as an excuse to stay in our sin or to embrace our anger and vengeance or to simply not care.
The more I read the Bible and the more I study, the more I am convinced that this is not what God calls us to. "Go into all the world and make disciples," Jesus said. Disciples, not merely converts. Disciples are followers. The New Testament disciples, Jesus' disciples, traveled with Him. They followed Him everywhere. They learned not only what He taught but what He lived. When He went back to Heaven, they carried on those lessons. They taught them to the early church. They exemplified them in how they lived.
If we were truly disciples of Jesus, would we not also do life with Him? Follow Him closely so that we could not only learn what He teaches but live what He lived? The church has often called this a "sanctification" process, where we are, little by little, becoming more like Jesus.
This is a much higher calling than simply believing in a short creed and occasionally attending Sunday church. I believe this is why Jesus said the path is narrow and not everyone will find it. It is why He warned that many on the day of judgment will say, but Jesus, we did all these things in Your name, and He'll say, "I never knew you." We have frequently missed the boat on what exactly it is that Jesus is calling us to. It is so much more than a set of beliefs.
It's a way of life.
In Romans, we are called to be "living sacrifices" and "transformed by the renewing of your mind". In Ephesians, we are called to "be imitators of God" and to "walk in love, just as Christ loved us." In Colossians, we are called to clothe ourselves "with hearts of compassion." In 1 Peter, we are called to "be holy as He is holy." In James, we are called to be not just hearers of the word but "doers." Then there's 1 John 2:6, which reads, "Whoever says, 'I abide in him,' ought to walk in the same way as he walked."
Are you walking as He walked?
Are you living out all that God is calling you to?
What does your billboard say?
If our billboard is more about a red, white, and blue flag or Republicanism or Trump or nationalism or privilege or really anything else other than God, how can we even call ourselves Christian?
Our billboard should be about no one else, nothing else, but Him.
Lord, may it be all about you. May I decrease that you might increase. And may my life demonstrate the goodness of Your love.
Amen.
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