Gentlemen's Club

Kettle One Vodka and Cadillac. Sure, these are odd words to begin a spiritual devotional thought with, but they are relevant. As a young man in my thirties, these two companies have the most powerful advertising campaigns. Both of them show what it means to be a part of the Gentlemen's Club. Young good looking men, obviously financially successful, standing around in suits and sports coats-living the "good life." They carry around the air of significance and arrival. As a young man, their exterior forces an internal question in my life, "Have I arrived."

Isn't it amazing how apt the world is in marketing the exterior and appearance. If you own the right car, drink the right drink, and buy the right clothing, people will like you. You WILL have fun. You WILL be important. People WILL look to you.

We set out...many of us, on a journey for such external significance. If you think you are above it, check your credit card receipts. How often do you live above your means in order to maintain an air of success and arrival? We measure our lives by the outside. The one that looks like they are doing the best...gets the kudos. They are the blessed ones.

I guess that's why I love the verse in the Bible that says, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearence, but the Lord looks at the heart." For most of us, this is an encouraging word. Most of us haven't arrived. Most of us don't have the fancy toys. We live paycheck to paycheck. Any keeping up we do, places us further and further in debt, causing anxiety and stress as we work to figure out how to pay our bills. In the eyes of the world...the Kettle One/Cadillac world is a lofty dream most of us will never reach. But God does not look upon the outward appearance to find worth and significance.

The Lord realizes that most of the stuff we dress ourselves up with, most of the posturing for esteem, and most of the displays of "arrival" are nothing but cover-ups for deeper issues. The Lord's glance looks past the adornments of the world and right to the heart. It is the heart of man that God is most concerned with. It is the very core of human existence. It is the place in which God has hidden God's desires for each of us. It is the outflow of humility, righteousness, mercy, compassion, and love. It is in the heart that God peers for the possibility of fulfilling our divine calling.

Our worth and value is not wrapped up in our outward appearance but in the grand design of God for our lives. God doesn't only invite those that have arrived to take part in God's Kingdom of Grace, but those of us that are unimpressive, those that don't fit the World's vision of value. We are the "unlikely guests" called to take our places in dream of God for this world.