Image Coach

You may have heard of these specialists who 'coach' aspiring professionals in creating a demeanor of prudent respectability in corporate America.

The upside of employing an Image Coach is that the client is better equipped to compete in a cultural forum among others who are just as aspiring and perhaps even more capable than they. Being coached as to what to wear, how to look, what to say and how to say it are the critical essentials to some who sense that their abilities can be overshadowed by their personal presentation. Image Coaches aren't cheap, but to many, they are priceless.

The downside of coaching image is that you can 'create' an image that is simply not aligned to the person that you really are. You can put a cowboy hat on me, stick a straw in my mouth and have me wear Wranglers with a well worn Copenhagen container circle on my back left pocket, but I just ain't no Country Boy. I might take a good picture and slur my words with a perfected twang, but that image would hold up about five seconds at the County Fair!

Herein is the difference between religion and relationship. 'Religion' can be reduced to image. Think about it. Do the right thing at the right time in the right way among the right people and you can make the right impression...on others. In the Bible, Jesus spoke directly to those who seemed to be both the religious and the cultural 'Image Coaches'. They stopped to pray at the right time. They offered the prescribed sacrifices according to expectation. They even gave financially to the Temple Offerings to the detail...and yet, as far as Jesus was concerned...it was all 'image'.

"Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When He reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.' And his disciples heard him say it." Mark 11:12-14

When a fig tree displayed leaves, the ancients (and the moderns) knew that it was ripe for the picking. Leaves were the outward evidence of fruit, ready to be enjoyed. Figs can not be seen because of the leaves cover, but once you get close you can push aside the leaves and begin enjoying a snack breakfast. Jesus went to the fig tree with the expectation that it was projecting evidence of real fruit. Instead, it was barren and a waste of his time. From a distance, the leaves encouraged attention, but upon closer inspection, yielded only frustration.

Did you catch the phrase; "And his disciples heard him say it." He wanted them to hear because he knew that they would see the result of the curse he laid on the image inducing fig tree the very next day, (Mark 11:20).

Here is the lesson...really simple...and an important part of Jesus' teaching during His Passion Week; 'Religion without reality is empty'.

Do you cast a 'religious image'? When people take stock of you (from a distance) do you export a pseudo flavor of spirituality? If others were to take a closer look at your life from under the coverings of projection, what would be the 'real' you? Would they find a spiritually lifeless image caster, bent on convincing others of what is in fact...missing? That is a dangerous place to be...leading others into your barrenness can result in a judgment that God harshly applies against you.

Sometimes 'religion' is our attempt to become pleasing to the people who are around us. Sometimes 'religion' is our attempt to induce our 'like-a-bility' to God Himself. Each are driven by finding acceptance. With others, you may have to earn that, but with God, he already loves you and needs no convincing of your value. When instead you are related to the God who loves you, demonstrated by His Son who died and rose again on your behalf...your life bears His image...and there is nothing fraudulent about that! As a matter of fact, you become quite attractive to others who may employ an Image Coach but yet long for the satisfaction of the soul that only the Christ can create within.

Today...be 'real'. If you are faking spirituality through the practice of religion that is motivated to impress others or even God...abandon that...NOW! If you life is out of line with the 'image' of Christ-likeness that you are publicizing, repent, adjust and enjoy the renewal of His life bearing fruit through you in genuineness.

You don't need an Image Coach when you have a Redeeming Savior whose Life is your life. As a matter of fact...you don't even want one!