As I write this, God’s Not Dead (And Neither Are We) is the five hundred and twenty-sixth thousandth, seven hundred and seventy-sixth best selling book on Amazon. Culture Of Corruption by Michelle Malkin is first, joining the most recent tomes by Glenn Beck and Mark Levin in the top ten. Which if nothing else proves we conservatives love reassurance. But I digress.
Back to Malkin. This week she’s been dashing to and fro around the country on her publisher’s marketing dime making the rounds of promotional appearances on assorted television programs: Sean Hannity earlier this weekend, the Today Show… well, today. Me? I’m waiting until payday so I can buy a copy of my book and send it to the fine folk at Down the Line. Look ‘em up; it’s good stuff. But again I digress.
I don’t begrudge Malkin her success. I’m not going to suck up to her either in hopes of either riding her coattails or catching some crumbs falling from the master’s table. This is anything but a recommended course of action for one seeking to see their star be so much as visible in the blogosphere and book writing sky with anything less powerful than the Hubble space telescope (when it’s working), let alone rise. But it’s the only way to go for a believer.
Something you’re best advised to learn very early in the process if success if your goal, measured in terms of site visits or book sales, is to spare no efforts at telling everyone you’re a believer while spending as little time as possible actually mentioning said beliefs. The problem with being openly Christian — well, not really a problem; more a fact — is if you actually and actively follow the teachings of Christ, making mention not of your following them in some form of modern-day Pharisaical “ain’t I the holy one who’s oh so proud of his humility” fashion but the actual teachings themselves, is if you’re doing it right sooner or later you’re going to wind up in your own stumbling fumbling and bumbling way imitating Christ in how you conduct yourself.
Which is guaranteed to tick everyone off.
Jesus was an equal opportunity offender. He called out the Pharisees for their hypocrisy even as He chastised His followers for their shortsightedness. His message was demanding and unyielding: take care of each other regardless, love always, follow My commandments. Which when one considers Christ died on the cross so we could have eternal life with Him doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
This leads to moments where you’re going to say, “Hey.” Hey, don’t use cheesecake to promote your blog. Hey, don’t be making “look at me — SQUEE!” your mantra. Hey, don’t be a CWC (Christian when convenient). Hey, don’t be an elitist.
Hey, never become what you profess to oppose.
Bear in mind none of the above will guarantee you a million hits on your blog. One one-millionth of a million hits is more like it. But here’s the catch. It’s okay. If you’re doing the right things for the right reasons, it’s always okay. It’s always more important to do the right thing no matter what. What, God isn’t big enough to get the people who should be reading your stuff connected with same? Better one soul reached for Christ than one hundred thousand sheeples hanging on every word of your latest sermon to the choir while accepting a generous love offering from the congregation.
Would I like hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of daily readers. Of course. But not at the cost of not being true to the Gospel. Not that I don’t work the system to my advanatge when available. A good example of this is my post yesterday for the Examiner. Yes, it occurred to me that putting Erin Andrews’ name in the title would probably generate a certain amount of site visits. However, when those arriving at the post get there, any hoping for either hot pictures or a link to the detestable video of her are going to be a tad disappointed at seeing the only photo being a very nice head shot along with a story decrying what has been done to her while outlining the proper behavior for Christian men against such mind-rapes. They’ll live.
It’s not that every word out of our mouths is going to be or even supposed to be “Jesus Jesus Jesus.” However, all of our words should be rooted in Him. That immediately eliminates throwing whatever out there for the sake of generating heat in order to generate ad revenue. If conflict is created by what you say, let it be because you were preaching Christ, not being a contrarian for the sake of being one as an attention-getter for employment’s sake (*coughallahpunditcough*).
Yeah, I’d like to be better known. But it’s far better that Christ be better known. The goal is hearing Him say “well done, my good and faithful servant.” As opposed to Him smacking me upside the head while saying “what are you doing?!!”
