What Are You Promoting?

So my life this semester is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. I'm interning and taking one online class. And that is it. Yes, it rocks... in case you were wondering. But anyways, my class is all about social media and how we can best use it for marketing and promotion of ourselves and business. It got me thinking that everything and everyone serves as a promoter of something - by talking about it, spreading the word, excitement about it, the clothes we wear, and the way we act towards it or the way we act in general. Unless you simply aren't passionately living your life, odds are you promote one thing or another.

I, for example, am a big promoter of MSU Volleyball, my family and brother, and my Faith. Most college kids are promoters of the bars and drinking. Parents are promoters of their children and their accomplishments. Companies are promoters of their product or service. Some people - well most if we are honest - are huge promoters of themselves (because who doesn't love sharing their All-American type accomplishments with others?). Ok, I think you get the picture...

Yes, Dwight and The Office are awesome. But no need for all of us to toot our own horns!

Can the same be said about promotion for Christ? Do I proudly wear and bear his name as I walk by faith through life? Do I excitedly talk about how I have been saved and will get to share in The Feast of heaven by simply believing in Him? Do I always have Beautiful Feet and share my faith and the gospel with others? Or, do I shy away from promoting Christ, do I become worried about my 'image' and instead continue to promote myself and toot my own horn, attempting to 'fit in'?

Why is it so hard to walk by faith? Well, put plainly, I'm sinful! "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." (Romans 7:19-20).

My sinful nature keeps me from being a "Jesus Freak" and having reckless abandon to promote Christ. But a) what better thing could I really be promoting and b) what a privilege that the God of the universe uses me to promote his work and love! This isn't even to mention Jesus' promotion of me before his holy Father in heaven. He's vouching for me despite this sin that's so ugly and present! Umm, mind blown, anyone?

The opinions of others and approval I crave from this world start to seem pretty insignificant, as does my own self-centered promotion. Especially when I consider the amazing works of my God. That I am loved and chosen by Him. And that nothing in this world can separate me from his hand. It doesn't necessarily make my desire to fit in disappear, but I'm at least I'm 'not fitting in' and even hated (John 15:19) for a pretty dang good cause.

Share it with me!

Walking by faith and promoting Christ start to become easier when I place my focus back on Christ instead of myself. "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:25). I don't need to muster up the strength to do it all and promote Christ on my own. It comes from Jesus living in me... from the overflowing love of His spirit in my life. Not by sight can truly become a way of life, because I'm being lead by my heart, not by my selfish mind.

So I think my self-promotion (subtle, humble, or loud as it may be) can take a back seat for awhile. And I challenge yours to do the same. Go be bold. Go against the grain. Go share the gospel. And go be a Jesus Freak. "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." -Philippians 1:21