Image Matters

My Grandma always told me that if I wanted a job, I better wear a suit to the interview, or at least a shirt and tie. Why? Because image is important. That is why 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 is one of my favorite verses. We are encouraged to become all things to all people…now my story:

I eat lunch at Panera Bread approximately 3-4 days a week, sometimes more. They have the best soup in town and that is all I eat for lunch. Yesterday, as I was waiting for my name to be called to pick up my lunch at the pick-up counter I was setting my laptop up, when I was approached by a guy I didn’t know. He was a big guy, with those big ear rings that stretch your ears and make big holes. He was wearing a black t-shirt, and jean shorts. He looked like the kind of guy that would be interested in heavy metal rock music or something. He was friendly and said, “I know you don’t know me at all and this may be weird, but do you use the internet in here a lot?” I told him that I did, so he proceeded to ask me if I would go help his friend access the internet. He was concerned that my food would get cold, so he told me to bring it to their table with me, but I told him it would be ok.

I did the best that I could to get this guy’s friend’s computer to connect to the internet. His friend was a smaller version of the big guy, except he had longer hair in a ponytail with a hat on. He had camouflage shorts on with a black t-shirt. As I attempted to work on the computer, both guys were very friendly, talkative, and they shared how they were in town for some reason, but they were originally from York, Pennsylvania. I don’t remember too much of what was said as I was focusing on helping them out with their computer issue. I thought I had fixed it, and as the browser was taking them to Panera’s log-in screen, a parental control screen came up requesting a password. The guy who owned the computer was straight up with me and said that his wife has most of the internet blocked because he struggles with things on there, most guys would not admit that. I told him there was probably nothing I could do to help him log on to the internet because of the parental lock, so I told them good luck and went to eat my lunch, but I couldn’t help myself, knowing that these guys needed the internet for something important for their trip, so I went and offered for the guy to use my computer, he did, and both guys were overjoyed that I was willing to help them. These guys were super nice people.

I say all of this because, image matters. I was wearing an edgy t-shirt with the above logo going down one side of the shirt. It was the shirts we had made for D-Now this year. I almost didn’t wear it yesterday, because it was St. Patrick’s Day and I didn’t want any trouble with work, but I wore it anyway and of course I have the coolest hair around, highlighted in blond, short enough to wear messy, but not ugly messy…cool messy!
I noticed something strange when all of this happened. I was sitting in a whole separate section of the dining room at Panera. The guy that came to me had to walk behind a large dividing wall to get to me, and then I was sitting at the rear of that dining room. When I went to their table, there were at least 3 other tables with their wireless laptops up and going. In my dining room there were at least 2 other people at tables before you got to me. In the larger dining room where these guys were located, there had to be 3-5 other people besides the ones I already named. People come here to get work done and to use the wireless internet. So why me? I think its because I looked a little more like them. The 3 tables of people that were immediately around them all were dressed in business attire, shirts, ties, and some in suits. They all looked older, whereas I looked similar in age to the guys who were asking for my help. They could have easily asked those people around then for help, but they purposely went out of their way to come to me. These guys could have been believers, I don’t know. The guy with the computer had a document minimized that said, “My Testimony.” Maybe God knew they needed to use the internet and couldn’t with their laptop, and He knew I would be sensitive enough to offer the use of mine? I don’t know! All I know is what I saw, and that was how image apparently mattered to them and that is what drew them to me, and because of that their needs got met. I think the same principles are valid in our churches, we will attract who we are! We will attract what we look like. That’s not a bad thing, but to be effective I believe we have to pay attention to its importance!