Advertising—What's Best for You?

Posted July 3, 2008

A commentary by Jeremy Lallier

We've known for 400 years that the earth revolves around the sun. But if all the advertising around us is correct, the world actually revolves around something entirely different—you!

Burger King wants you to "have it your way." Sprite tells you to "obey your thirst." UPS wants to know, "What can Brown do for you?"

A simple, unifying theme emerges: It's all about you. You're in the driver's seat, and the only thing that really matters is that you have and do what you like. You're the beginning, the end and everything in between. And for only 59 cents more, you can have that supersized too.

Do something radical

Sure, the idea of having the entire world catering to your every whim sounds great. But let's do something radical. Let's see what the Bible has to say about the egocentric life offered to us on every media outlet available.

For starters, Jesus Christ is called "the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last" (Revelation 22:13). Our universe doesn't begin or end with ourselves, but with God.

But shouldn't we be able to decide for ourselves what we want and what we don't want?

The Bible says no. In fact, on our own, we humans are sometimes no better at discerning between a good and bad idea than a moderately intelligent petunia would be. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12). God's Word also declares, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).

What's best for you?

Fact is, we don't always know what's best for ourselves—but God does. As tempting as it is to believe that our decisions should be based only on what we think and feel, on our own we simply cannot always make the best choices.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying you have to involve God in choosing a soda to drink or what package delivery service to use, but choosing what is right or wrong by ourselves is very dangerous. Adam and Eve thought they could do it themselves, and we're still paying for it!

But there's good news. While advertisers largely care only about bleeding our wallets dry, God's only care is for us. He cared enough to send His Son to die a horrible death for us. Jesus went willingly to His death because He, too, cares deeply for us.

Make it real

Let's rephrase that to make it as real as possible. Christ's agony on the cross, He went through freely for me and you—the reader of this article—to give you personally the chance to be a member of God's family and enjoy an amazing eternity in His Kingdom.

Recall the point about God's superiority in thinking? He tells us what His thoughts are. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).

God knows what He's doing. Let's ignore the world's advertisements to do things on our own terms. Read "Dethroning the Media Gods" to better combat their influence in your life.

Put your faith and trust in the Lord, who has a future of peace and hope for us all—and what a future it is! VT