EP. 07 / Got Grace?
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In the early 2000’s a popular ad campaign emerged in response to declining milk sales. The source of the ads was not the brands that sold products but the raw material suppliers of those brands. The suppliers understood that they were not experiencing a product issue but a demand issue. If there is no demand, there is no product for brands to sell. So, they attacked the problem at the source, in the hearts and minds of millions of Americans, with a simple two-word question, Got Milk?
The Got Milk campaign featured the brightest Hollywood Stars and trailblazing athletes juxtaposed against a plain black background alongside this simple question. The message “if superstar, best to ever do it; tennis Phenoms Venice & Serena got milk, it’s good enough for me.” Even though it made me gag and gave me gas, I devised ways to drink more milk. I wanted to be like Venus & Serena on Saturday mornings when my father dragged me to tennis lessons. And then I wanted to be like Annie Leibowitz, the famed international photographer who shot the —whose who— of the world. But it was Laila & Muhammed Ali who did it for me because, at the heart of it —I was a girl who wanted to be like her Daddy. A fighter who stayed ready and never had to get ready.
Today, I want to talk to a few people who want to be like Jesus. Folks that see their weakness but know God’s strength. And next to their photos on black backgrounds—a simple two-word question, Got grace?
I’m a marketer by trade. And I think of many things through the context of winning hearts & minds to achieve the goal of winning a share of wallet. When I first answered the call, I was very mindful of not wanting to appear to be selling Jesus. The encouragement of a church Elder got me thinking about how I could market God. I originally developed a campaign called Got Faith, but I realized faith gives me access, and grace gives me strength. In this flesh, when the weapons come knocking at the door, I need His strength which is sufficient to ward off and defend me from the lies and the truth of who I am-- an imperfect person living an imperfect life. But the good news is, I have grace.
The grace of God is your strength. No matter your thorn, weakness, or infirmity, Jesus conquered it all on the Cross. The weapon is going to form but what you’ve got to know for yourself is that it won’t prosper --because you’ve got grace.
When you don’t feel strong, you’ve got grace.
When your body feels feeble, you’ve got grace.
When your mind is betraying you, you’ve got grace.
The grace of God is your strength, but you have to leave room for God. That's the power of grace— the space between the inferiority of our weakness and the superiority of God. Because if we do it in our strength, who gets saved?