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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Despair Not!

DESPAIR NOT!

Years ago, I heard a message on the radio and at the beginning of his sermon, a pastor warmed up his audience with a few jokes from a company called Despair, Inc. Though a bit crude at times, I’ll have to admit that the jokes were pretty funny and I could hear the audience in the background laughing in agreement to the truth within the jokes.

At institutions and workplaces, one will often see hanging on walls posters which are supposed to be positive and encouraging. Sometimes, however, their messages are a bit “cheesy” and so, Despair, Inc. decided to exploit this cheesiness. In a twisted but profitable fashion, this company actually made a business out of humorously discouraging people with the use of sarcasm, satire, and irony.

Now, I’m normally not a fan of negativity at all, but Despair, Inc. seems to have a unique way of pulling out the hardcore truths within various negative situations and then turning those concepts into devices to which everyone can relate. Because we can relate, we find certain truths to be funny; even if they're a bit dark. And because laughter is good for the soul, I can see exactly why the minister in mention opened his sermon with quotes from the company's products which are fittingly called "demotivators."


After hearing this sermon, I decided to jump on the bandwagon of turning negatives into positives as well. I actually purchased a number of items from despair.com to use as teaching aids during open-air preaching, etc. Here are a couple of posters I still own today and why:


After viewing funny poster after funny poster, I just couldn’t stop laughing at the Failure one above. Being able to relate to it, I decided to roll with it. I bought this poster in the name of sharing with others the importance of abiding in Christ. Apart from Him, we can do nothing of any real and everlasting worth (John 15:5). Though Despair, Inc. wasn't trying to say this, the truth is...our own best effort is NEVER "good enough"! And the sooner we learn this, the better. It took me years as an atheist and then a new believer to finally realize that God is God and I’m not.


Besides finding this Procrastination poster to be funny, I purchased it to preach on the topic of salvation. Scripture says "now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). God’s Word teaches that wrong-living comes with its pleasure for a season, but ultimately we will reap what we’ve sown (Galatians 6:7-9; Hebrews 11:25). Also, whenever we are exposed to a truth, we should act in obedience to that truth rather than allow our hearts to become hardened or our consciences be seared (Hebrews 3:12-19; 1 Timothy 4:2). This simple concept applies to believers and unbelievers alike.
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You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”

Kathryn Stockett, The Help


It’s actually these last two posters (Individuality & Potential) which I don’t own but originally wanted to write about. Though they are intended to be funny, they’re also in agreement with a common [and negative] sentiment I've observed in the world as well as the church today:



For the record, I laughed pretty hard at both of these posters when I first saw them. Nonetheless, I want to address just a couple of notions within the intended sarcasm and/or satire:

1) Individuality - The truth is…whether in the world or in the church, we are ALL special and that's perfectly fine. As humans, we were all formed and made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27; James 3:9). Just because someone else has God-given unsurpassable worth, that doesn’t mean that we too can’t have God-given unsurpassable worth. No one else's uniqueness can take away from what we inherently are as creations of God. Our good Father Who is in Heaven is exactly that — a Father. And good fathers love all of their children; differences and all. What is special about one child doesn't take away from what is special about another.

2) Potential - Just because someone else has a unique gifting and has climbed the ladder which the world’s majority has deemed more important, this doesn’t mean that our seemingly “lesser” role isn’t equally important. I don’t know about you, but I very much so value all the people who bag groceries, return shopping carts (especially in the Texas heat), work fast food, change diapers, pick up my trash once a week, deliver my mail, and this list could go on. I also value engineers and innovators. If all of these people who are made in the image of Yehovah weren’t doing what they do, where would our world be and what would it look like? - The Apostle Paul wrote "there is one body and many parts" (1 Corinthians 12:12). Though he wrote this to believers in the church, I feel it still applies to humanity as a whole.

In closing: From movies to magazines, the spiritual enemies of God seem to spread the message that unless we are the best, brightest, or most beautiful, we don’t have real worth. This just isn’t true and it’s important that all believers in God stand on the truths revealed in His Word. In turn, we are to spread His message of impartial love to all of those in the world who do not yet believe!

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