Life is Good vs. Life is... God

As you may or may not realize, I have a Life is Good sticker on the back of my car (two of them as a matter of fact). I also have a Life is Good t-shirt, pajama pants, shorts, backpack, yoga bag... I think that you are getting the idea. I think that Jake (the little smiley guy at the top) goes right along with the optimistic, positive attitude that I like to maintain. What the company represents is also good. American ideals and all that--starting something from nothing (a t-shirt business in the back of a van when they stumbled on Jake) and now that they have made it, they are giving back (supporting festivals that give 100% of profits to kids' charities). I have been more than a little impressed with the merchandise, but I am floored by the caretaking attitude of the company.


That being said, I saw a bumper sticker the other day that was an obvious copy, a plagerism, of "Life is Good." The logo was almost exactly like that above except it said "Life is... God." This, of course, is not the only example of Christain things adopting logos of worldly things and changing it for themselves. I did a search on Google Images for Christian t shirts and on the first page along was the "HisWay" for "Subway," "He Saves" for "Hershey," and "Got Jesus?" for "Got Milk?" Can I be opinionated for a little bit? These things bother me. And let me make this very clear, I am a Christian and it still bothers me. The "Life is... God" especially bothered me and I can't exactly place my finger on why. Maybe because I would never wear a Subway shirt, but I definately would wear Life is Good appearal What it seems to boil down to is this... Can we not be original. We (Christians) are transformed by the renewing of Christ Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts? Can we not come up with better ways to declare this transformation to the world that meager copies of everyday slogans. These overused slogans seem to make a joke of something I hold dear. Another example of a poor excuse for "evangelism." All the declaration, non of the actual work to develop relationships and meet needs of the person where they are. Why aren't we better at being different from the world? Why aren't we better at showing the joy that is ours? If you're happy and you know, than your face will surely show it... right?

"And we, ...are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthian 3:18, NIV

Just my deep thoughts for today.