‘Taste the difference’ is the slogan of one supermarket. It puts the spotlight on a customer. We do our bests to take it seriously. They may be giving good advice. And there are times when we venture alone and are well aware of it. When we (that is our betters) step up to the oche or the penalty spot, we know that all eyes are upon us. When the cox raises or lowers his hand at the beginning of a Boat Race, he makes a decision all his own. (After all, he is the only one in the shell who is facing the way he is about to go. The rest will be racing backwards.)
So there are some decisions in life that we take by ourselves. We grow up as we gain an adult taste in food and learn to distinguish the genuine from the phoney. If we allow our lives to be run by committees and pundits, we may find life becomes more comfortable but we shall deny ourselves the right to stand on our own two feet.
Jesus accepted and underlined this pattern (Matthew 10.38). It was one of his most severe sayings and few of us are anything but tentative when it comes to referring to it. But it has its place in the Gospels and in any assessment of family responsibilities.
We must keep this principle in its place. A Christian believer is bound to take into account the nature of the society in which he is a citizen and the legislation that regulates it. But he or she is wary of a tactic that believes society will be changed by increasing the number of whole-hearted Christians. That, of course, is a desirable event but it is far from being the whole story.
So if ‘Taste the difference’ serves the marketer with his analytics and graphics, it also serves to make Christians sit up. Putting one’s faith in Christ makes or should make a difference, the kind of difference that comes from building on a rock or building on shifting foundations (Matthew 7.24-29).
ROCK OR SAND?
‘When Jesus had finished this discourse the people were amazed at his teaching; unlike their scribes he taught with a note of authority.’ (Matthew 7.28,29)
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