Hi, all! Just a thought to help start your weekend.

Imitations can fool us. Have you ever bought frozen seafood, for instance, that reads something like this — “made with imitation crab meat”?? What, exactly, is an imitation crab?! It might look and taste the same, but apparently it isn’t.

Just this Sunday at church, I reached out and felt of one of the roses in the beautiful bouquet on the communion table. It looked fake to me, but I was fooled. It was indeed very real.

Some things are just more recognizable as “real” than others. 

The picture I’m showing you this week is one I took on a trip to New Orleans. You are looking at a riverboat cruising the Mississippi River and about to cross underneath the river bridge. To me, this picture screams, “Mississippi River,” because of the water itself, the bridge, and especially the riverboat. There is no wondering whether this is a simple fishing boat on a creek somewhere we can’t quite identify. It is the Mississippi River.

If we aren’t careful, we look at people and wonder if they’re real. Are they really a Christian? They don’t dress/sound/look/walk like one. Is this for real? Perhaps the world is looking at us with those very same questions in mind.

You put yourself into the following equation, because I can only use myself as an example. As I go about my week, I am representing the church I am privileged to pastor. I represent the two-county area of churches I get to work with as Associational Missionary. I represent the Campbell name and family. I am my wife’s husband. I am father to three grown daughters and father representative to two great sons-in-law. I am son, brother, nephew. I am friend.

But does the world see all that? Or do I come across as some fake form of a Christian, failing to represent Christ in the light as I am called to do?

What do they see when they look at me? I pray they see Him, and Him alone. Who or what do you represent this week?

Just a thought. ’Til later.

Brad Campbell can be reached at mastah.pastah@yahoo.com.