Film Friday NASA is preparing to send its first astronauts to walk on the moon, and so they bring in advertising guru Kelly Jones, to sell the idea to the public. They do this to keep the support coming in and to keep people interested. And so she comes up with the idea of selling the notion that the astronauts are going to be wearing Rolex watches, and using certain kinds of toothpaste, and drinking a popular energy drink, and wearing certain kinds of underwear. She says that this is just what is needed to help people relate to the astronauts. It’s not true about the products, but that’s advertising for you, she says it’s not lying – it’s selling. And this is the thing that we have to bear in mind with advertising, it’s not often telling us the truth. And products are sold to us so that we will keep on buying them.
There’s a saying that I came across in a book by Pete Greg – ‘we try and fill the gaps in our life with things that just make the gaps bigger’. In Isaiah 55 the prophet makes this offer to us – ‘Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink even, if you’ve no money. Come take your choice of wine or milk, it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that doesn’t give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen and I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul.’ The prophet here is offering us the food that God can bring to us – the meaning, the purpose, the direction, the sustenance… these things that fill the gaps inside. I think we will all continue to wrestle with these gaps that we have within us, and perhaps these things will keep bringing us back to God. That old Saint Augustine once said, ‘God put salt on our lips to make us thirst for him.’ I reckon that’s something that goes on with us all our lives, each day God making us hungry and thirsty for his reality and his presence within us.
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