Skip to main content

I Like Your Energy


The spa worker on the cruise ship was standing outside the spa area trying to get people to come in and sign up for spa treatments.  I wasn’t at all interested but I thought I’d still smile and greet her.  Cruise ship employees work in the service industry but that doesn’t mean they’re invisible.  My smile and greeting turned into a brief conversation.  As I turned to go to the gym area, she said:  “I like your energy”.

In that context, “energy” might relate to some aspect of spa services.  It’s also possible that her comment was still part of the effort to get me to sign up for some treatments.  But I’d like to think that the comment actually had something to do with my willingness to engage in conversation and treat her as a real person.  I’m guessing that most people probably don’t even look her in the eye as they hurry past, probably demonstrating, in their minds, their lack of interest in the spa.

But as I pondered her comment, it struck me that are not we all, as Christians, supposed to give off “energy”?  Before you think I’m going off the deep end and that I’m embracing some type of earthly philosophies or new age religion, why not take a walk with me through some verses from the Word of God?

We are the salt of the earth, it says in Matthew 5:13.  Salt seasons, preserves and brings out the flavor in food.  It also creates thirst.  Our saltiness should have a flavorful or positive impact on society and cause others to thirst for God.

We are the light of the world, it says in Matt 5:14-16.  Jesus Himself is the true light (John 1:9).  We are to reflect His light before others so that they may see our good works and give glory to God.

We are a fragrance, it says in 2 Corinthians 2:14. God, through us, spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.

We are the aroma of Christ, it says in 2 Corinthians 2:15.  To those who are being saved we are an aroma of God’s grace.  To those who are perishing, we are an aroma or reminder of death.

I want to be clear that I am not trying to communicate that should emanate or radiate some strange type of “energy”.  But I do think that the Word of God indicates that there should be something noticeable about us as Christians.  Salt, light, fragrance and aroma are all very noticeable and they should have impact.

And while I’m not saying that a smile and a brief conversation will necessarily draw someone to the Savior, I do think that it sometimes starts with interacting with people, regardless of their station in life, in a way that acknowledges their dignity and worth.  Then, by the grace of God, perhaps in the right context and in the right time, the aspects of being salt, light, a fragrance and an aroma might be sensed by them and used by the Holy Spirit to point them to the Savior.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Excel Still More!

To excel, according to some of the meanings from a few dictionaries, is to surpass others, do extremely well, outdo, do something better than anyone else. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, we find the phrase “excel still more”.   It prompts the question:  if we are already doing something better than anyone else, why would we be encouraged to do even more? Perhaps it would be helpful to see the wording that other translations use for “excel still more” to see why we would be encouraged to do so.  Here is a sampling: • abound more and more • to keep doing so more and more • but try even harder • live that way more and more. • that you progress even more. • that you increase more and more in how you ought to walk Maybe it would also be helpful to see some other verses where the word “excel” is used: “Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which when translated means Dorcas); this woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity which she did habitually.”...
Post a Comment
Read more

Value Proposition

Value proposition:  it’s a marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.  It should clearly and concisely communicate what customers can gain from selecting a particular brand over that of its competitors. In a value proposition, you don’t want your product to be viewed as being worth less than what your competitors offer.   But even worse, in a bit of a quirk of how letters and spaces can fall, if you take out the space between “worth” and “less”, you get “worthless”, which means something of no value.   If that word is used in conjunction with how your product is viewed by customers, it’s a word that will likely kill your brand. In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul, in a sense, communicated some value propositions. In chapter three, he starts off with describing the value of some things that many considered as extremely valuable in that day and age.   They had to do with status and achievement in the reli...
Post a Comment
Read more

Outrun the What?

“Outrun the rays”!  It’s a phrase I noticed on a billboard.  I think it’s a public service type campaign.  The intent, I assume, is to get people out of the harmful rays of the sun that can cause things like skin cancer.  But you really can’t outrun the rays, they travel at about 186,282 miles per second! Yet the campaign has a certain appeal to it.   “Outrun” sounds a lot like a competition and maybe it gets the competitive juices going for some.   Yet, try as you may, you still can’t outrun the rays, but you can implement strategies to avoid them.   And most of those strategies have a simple foundational aspect to them; you avoid the rays by finding some type of covering. Strategies for covering up from the rays include being in shaded areas, putting on clothing that blocks the rays or putting on sun screen. While the sun’s rays can certainly cause significant physical harm and cover is essential to combat that, there are also areas of our live...
Post a Comment
Read more