Unbranded

Something I realized today, which really I think I've known for a while, is that we tend to un-brand, if you will, a lot of things. I know that sentence sounds really unintelligent, but hang with me for a second.

When you get online and need to search for something, what do you do?
Google it.
When you want a soft drink, at least in Oklahoma, what do you ask for?
A coke.
When you have a cut, what do you cover it with?
A band aid.
Something I tend to do a lot is sanitize my hands (germs are gross!)...How do I do this?
I purell. (Side note: I feel as though Purell could use this to market their mini bottles of hand sanitizer: iPurell. Maybe not.).

We tend to take something a person has worked really hard to develop, trademark, market and integrate into our daily activities and trivialize it by unbranding - making it generic. Isn't the reason we use such products in the first place is because of their great marketing? We've unbranded so many things that I really had to stop for a minute to realize, looking around the room, the things sitting around me that have been unbranded.

Now for the point of all this: we, as Christians, have been branded. Just as the makers of Kleenex (gotcha again, right?) produced their product and labeled it proudly, we were, in a sense, produced and branded. We were called to live for Christ and have been marked as His. Nothing can take us out of His grip and nothing can unbrand us! We can be persecuted and distracted, but we still wear the brand of Christ. How great the Father's love for us - through all the times we try to "unbrand" ourselves, He still forgives, loves, cherishes and desires us! Don't trivialize the gift we've been given by unbranding yourself to fit with the status quo!

What are some brands you notice are unbranded?
Have you noticed Christians unbranding themselves? How, and for what reasons?

-Shae Suzanne

Check this out: Choosing to See, by Mary Beth Chapman (yes, wife of Steven Curtis), was recently released. It is currently #16 on the New York Times Bestseller List. I bought it yesterday and I already love it. If you buy books in the near future, put this one on your list.
Music: Fingerprints of God, SCC

Do you have the guts?

Recently I was talking to my Little, Catie, about some things going on. In the course of the conversation, we were talking about how hard it can be sometimes to talk to people about sticky situations. She said something that has stuck with me since that second:

"Do you have the guts to say something?"

Catie is known for asking hard questions and expecting answers. So when she said this, it didn't surprise me that she wanted an answer. What surprised me was how long this question has stuck with me and in how many ways it's come up since our conversation.

Do you have the guts to stand up for yourself?
Do you have the guts to stand up for your friends?
Do you have the guts to speak the truth?
Do you have the guts to live for Christ, no matter what that may look like?
Do you have the guts to love like Christ loves?
Do you have the guts?

-Shae Suzanne

Music for the week: Ready to Love Again, Lady Antebellum