Tag Lines

Many believe tag lines are the province of commercials, advertising copy, and people devoid of any ability to think.  The negative connotations of these short, simple, catchy phrases center on not being able to comprehend, short memories, and simplistic values.  It is almost as if tag lines appropriately sit in the realm of children.  Children don’t know much, so what does it matter?
 
Nothing could be father from the truth!  The most powerful truths we know come in one word.  Examples include love, compassion, mercy, relationships, parent, child, and friend.  Any one of the words represents and captures centuries of human contemplation and rhetoric, countless words scribed on every surface imaginable, and years of dedicated discipleship.  Simple words recognized, understood, and used by children the world over. 
 
Far too often we make it complicated.  Our actions try to say something not in our hearts and everyone is confused.  We struggle to stay long enough in the mirror to see who we really are, and live in a confused world, complex in description, stressful in reality, and marred by a lack of mission, purpose, and peace.  When someone asks us to explain the spin master within each naturally moves into action.  We cannot deny so we prevaricate.  We cannot explain so we create a mythology beyond anyone’s ability to understand.  We cannot live with it so we dance from one lifestyle to another.
 
Yet, in the midst of the chaos there are simple things that bind us.  If someone offers you unconditional love, our hearts go weak.  If someone unconditionally accepts who we are, we find hope.  If someone walks besides us in a compassionate rhythm, we grow strong.  Far to often we don’t quite know what to call this.  I do.  In fact “Jesus summed it all up when he cried out, ‘Whoever believes in me, believes not just in me but in the One who sent me.’”  (John 12.44)  This One is my God.
 
Some tag lines are unique.  Others are universal.  The God I know is here, part of the life we share.