Marketing Ploys
I just received a call from a web host who was trolling for more business among those who may be dissatisfied with their current provider. I get telephone calls looking for the person who has diabetes in my household(noone). I get calls from the police or fireman’s association asking me to buy tickets to their fundraiser. I get calls from companies that I do business with, asking me to increase my business. I get offers from Bank of America with whom I have a mortgage to have a home equity line at better interest rates. And so on.
These are all marketing ploys designed to increase the callers’ business. All the calls and letters I receive make me wonder if, in the spiritual realm, God isn’t doing the same thing: thinking up yet more ways of reaching the people he’d like to have under his wings or deepening the relationship with the ones who already pay at least some attention to Him. Of course he has the Bible as a big marketing aid. It’s still a world’s best-seller in all its versions. And there are thousands of other books about him or about Jesus. But how does He get the owners of the Bible to read it and incorporate its teachings into their lives? How does he get them to love him and have a close relationship with him? How does he get them to do his will in this world?
Certainly for God and for businesses these days, it’s not enough to have the product in the consumers’ hands. There must be reminders, letters, instructions and repeated calls to get us to respond. We’re so busy that a lot of these signals are missed. In the spiritual realm, how is God trying to reach you? Do you respond to his smallest calls or do you wait until the signal grows stronger and stronger until you can’t ignore it? In the sphere of the Divine I think it is best to pay attention to all signals, because we are so oblivious these days to any. What is God trying to say to you through your conscience? Through the books you read(including the Bible)? Through the events in your life? Through persistent yearnings? Through dreams or daydreams? Do you even know how God speaks to you? His signals are more subtle than the cold calls and mail we get, but they are even more persistent. Remember that in 1st Kings 19:11-12 the writer reports that the Lord is not in the wind or fire or earthquake, but in the silence.
Our souls mediate between the Lord and us, bring us messages from him/returning to him our deepest desires. Our souls also hold our longings and the purpose for our lives. If we live out of the soul’s agenda for our lives, we will live lives of rich meaning and purpose. We will be connected to the Lord, living out our call to be who we were created to be.
Then the messages from God will not get lost in the shuffle of today’s busy lives. There will be a constant flow of communication and communion between the lord and us. What are we waiting for? In how many more ways must the Lord try to reach us, before we respond? What we most desire in his hands; he is trying to give to us the lives we crave, for which we were created, if only we would listen.