A Note from Hixon Frank
Hey Church!
“IMAGE IS EVERYTHING!” …
… said the 19-year-old tennis star who, in the summer of 1989, did a series of television commercials for Canon, the maker of SLR cameras and lenses. The ads, filmed in the Nevada desert, were flashy and stylized. The ad featured a young Andre Agassi, with his trademark “rockstar haircut” (back when he still had hair), stepping out of a white Lamborghini, lowering his sunglasses, and pausing to utter the simple phrase, “Image is everything!”
Agassi wrote in his autobiography Open, “the slogan became synonymous with me. Sportswriters likened this slogan to my inner nature, my essential being. They say it was my philosophy, my religion and they predicted it was going to be my epitaph”. He continued to say throughout the book that all the flash and glitter hid a rather shy and kind kid. That he developed, almost overnight, a reputation for being cocky and arrogant.
There was a huge GAP between who Andre really was and the manufactured reputation others thought they knew. Those 3 words became taunts from the crowd, “Come on Andre – IMAGE IS EVERYTHING!” The words hurt, Agassi confessed later, and they didn’t go away. For the next three years he was treated to a steady diet of “Image is everything!” both on and off the court! It was crushing for him. It wasn’t until he won Wimbledon, and humbly held the Challenge Cup aloft, that people began to see something different in him.
Of course, it is a clever “play on words” for a camera and lens company to advertise “Image is everything!” … but the slogan didn’t stick to the company it stuck to Andre!
The Bible says in Proverbs 22:1
“A good name is to be chosen over great wealth; Favor is better than silver and gold.”
Reputations are funny things. Sometimes they are accurate and fully represent the person in question. Other times a person’s reputation is a “dim reflection” of who they actually are.
REPUTATION. noun
the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something.
Most of us do a lot to protect our image or reputation. We post our best pictures on social media (tan and skinny please), we project confidence when entering a room, we want to be seen as successful, relevant, and having things together. We can be, if we are honest, preoccupied with what others think…
But remember the Jesus model …. Jesus seemed to have little concern for his reputation. He just “went about the Father’s business.”
- Jesus dined with “tax collectors and sinners”. (Matthew 11:19) Oh my!
- Jesus said, “don’t hinder the children from coming to me”. (Matthew 19:14) A big “no-no” back then.
- Jesus defended the “woman caught in adultery” (John 8) Did He think it was no big deal?
- Jesus, engaged the “Samaritan woman”…(John 4:9) Samaritans were “dogs” to the Jews but he engaged her anyway.
- Jesus told people to “turn the other cheek.” (Matthew 5:39). But He was supposed to lead a rebellion…right?
- Jesus said, “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.” (Matthew 5.11). Wait, what?
It would be strange if he HAD worried about his reputation, wouldn’t it? …can you imagine if we read that …
- Jesus ignored the “tax collectors and sinners because it looks bad”
- Jesus declared, “keep the kids away, it is undignified”
- Jesus explained. “you are an adulterer, you deserve what’s coming to you”
- Jesus told the woman at the well, “I can’t be seen with you”
- Jesus “teaches the importance of the counterpunch”
Sounds silly, doesn’t it?
QUICK TIPS
- Let’s be about our FATHER’S BUSINESS. Like Jesus, we need to just do what we know to be right… God honoring, and Kingdom minded. (His Kingdom)
- Have we forgiven people their offenses? (Mat 6:15)
- Have we refrained from “slander and gossip”? (2 Cor 12:20)
- Have we “acted justly, loved mercy and walked humbly”? (Micah 6:8)
- Have we stood for “orphans and widows in their distress”? (James 1:27)
- Have we “worshipped in spirit and truth”? (John 4:24)
- So much more….
- Let’s worry more with the TRUTH than PERCEPTION While having a good reputation is a wonderful thing, understand that reputations are only as good as the people entrusted with them and people often believe what they want to believe. We see it in sports and politics all the time.
If, for example, if you grew up loving the Houston Astros baseball team, then you had all kinds of reasons why the 2017-18 cheating scandal was “overblown,” “no big deal,” and “everyone was doing it.” If, however you are a Rangers fan, (or any other MLB team for that matter) you can’t believe how corrupt and deceitful “those cheaters” were! Funny isn’t it.
Same is true on politics. Our political party “cares” and theirs is “power hungry.” Ours is virtuous and theirs is … well… evil. Everyone involved has a reputation that depends, in large part, upon who’s team or party they happen to be on.
So, lets worry less about perception and more about reality.
- Let’s focus on our reputation where it matters, WITH OUR FAMILY! Why is our reputation at home so important? Because we “are who we are” when we are at home. Angry? We can fool others but not our family. Deceitful? We can fool others but not our family. Love Jesus? We can fool others but not our family…. You see, the key question when it comes to our reputations isn’t what “the world” believes about us … but what does our family know to be true.
1 Peter 3:7 that tells 7 “Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker partner, showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.”
Colossians 3:21 that tells Fathers, “do not exasperate your children, so that they won’t become discouraged.”
I Timothy 3:12 exhorts deacons “to be husbands of one wife, managing their children and their own households competently.”
MY POINT, in spite of my many words, is SIMPLE …QUIT worrying about what people think of you! Honor the Lord, love your family, and be about the Father’s business! Then your reputation will take care of itself!
I sure love you folks,
Hixon