Getting Messages...

We all get messages of one kind or another. Sometimes they are clear but often we cannot understand what is being said or communicated, or even who the message is from. Then there is the problem of someone else taking a messagge for you. My mother-in-law has a magnet on her fridge that has a picture of a teenaged boy with the line, "mom, somebody called for you from somewhere and wants you to call them back." Messages have a way of not being very clear, expecially when they come second-hand. To try to solve at least part of this problem, we just had voicemail installed at the office. It's given us something to play around with abd get used to. Already we're getting positive feedback about it - things like, "it's about time!"
Getting a message across is very important. The way in which it is presented is also important. If someone in your family comes to you and says, 'we need to talk,' it usually indicates something serious.
In 1967 Marshall McLuhan wrote a book called The Medium is the Massage. "Massage" was really supposed to be "message," but somebody at the publisher goofed, and McLuhan apparently wanted it left as is. He believed that how the message is communicated is as important as the message itself, hence his title. This is my book of the week. I just finished reading it, and couldn't get over how profound and apt it is for today! Other than some older vocabulary, you would think he was talking about the situation today.
Well, McLuhan is right in many respects. How we communicate is as important as what we communicate. I find it interesting to apply McLuhan's thought to Jesus. Jesus is both the medium (he became a human) AND the message (a demonstration of God's love for all of humanity and creation).
But the message doesn't stop there. All who are followers of Jesus are to carry the message of God's love and grace to everyone around them. Paul said this: "Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it." This is found in 2 Corinthians 3:3, from The Message. Here's a link: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%203%20;&version=65;
Those who call themselves Christians are often accused of being hypocrites, because what's written on their lives does not match what comes out of their mouths. I guess I'm often guilty as charged.
I have to continually ask myself (many times a day!), what message am I sending?
Well, how about you?
Blessings,
David