I generally don’t enjoy shopping. When necessary, I go to the store, get what I need, and leave to do things I enjoy. The demise of brick-and-mortar stores during the pandemic has forced me to shop online more than I desire. For me, when I need to shop, using local merchants is much more pleasurable. Not only do I get to touch and feel the merchandise, but I may run into people that I know and get to catch up, if only briefly, on how their lives are going.
Twice recently, while buying online, I have received merchandise that was not as described. I am very much a skeptic, but I do hope that it is the volume of items the online stores carry that causes this deceptive advertising and that it is not done intentionally.
I looked forward to receiving the much-needed cushions for my porch chairs and that made the disappointment that much greater when the cushions I received were actually one-half of the weight advertised. I needed hefty, 4-pound cushions similar to the ones I used to buy at the now-closed Pier 1 store. What I received were light, fluffy, 2-pound cushions.
When I called and explained the problem, the company graciously re-ordered the cushions, specifying the 4-pound cushions, and yet the second set I received were, again, 2-pound cushions.
A similar thing occurred when I ordered a birdfeeder made in the USA and got one-half the quality that was produced in China.
Surely other shoppers are returning these mislabeled goods as I am, so I wonder, is it that much trouble to change an online description to actually match what is being sold, or is it truly an intent to deceive?
While pondering all of this, I thought about when we, humans, advertise deceptively whether intentionally or not. When we meet someone for the first time, we and they usually make an effort to show our best side. It is only after sitting with someone for a period of time when we scratch to see what is under the surface, that we begin to know their true self.
I have met many a humble servant of God who never would admit to their achievements for the kingdom if I had not had enough time to sit and listen to their stories. Usually, for me, that means preparing a meal and having someone come to enjoy it and then tell me about their life.
I have also met people who claim the name Christian but live a life so unlike that of what Jesus taught that had they not told me, or shown up at church, I would have assumed they were just part of the secular flow of people that pass by me each day.
When I sit down and chat with a Christian in name only, I generally find that they are so accustomed to living like the rest of the world that they cannot imagine that I might find their Christian character wanting.
Is this a kind of deceptive advertising, as well?
If I say I am a Christian, but I don’t follow Jesus’ teachings (i.e., love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself), I believe it is wrong to claim that I am.
So, why do some people claim to be Christian but under the layers, they are not?
Possibly we refer to ourselves as Christians as being opposed to belonging to other religions, such as being a Buddhist or Muslim.
Maybe it is because Christianity seems somewhat familiar because our grandmother was a Christian and so we say we are.
Maybe we are still ‘trying it out’ to see if we really want to become a Christian, or maybe we’ve just sat in the pew so long we claim the name, along with claiming the pew, even while not claiming Christ’s character.
Whatever the reason, if we are not living the pure and holy life that Jesus showed us is available in His name, then we may find that we are guilty of our own deceptive advertising.
When someone meets me or even sits with me over dinner, when they encounter the depths of my soul and my beliefs, I want them to see that Jesus is the center of my very being. He is in charge of the life I live, the work I perform, and the wife that I am to Neil. To me, that is what it means to be a follower of Jesus – to be a Christian.
King David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
If, like King David, we ask God to show us our true selves, including the rough spots, then He and we can be working on them so that, in time, we will be exactly what we claim to be when we say we are Christians – followers and Disciples of Christ.
ED. NOTE: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.
