I may have ranted about this before, I couldn't remember, but it's come up again and just in case I haven't use it as a bulletin already I thought it might be something to think about today.

Once upon a time, just a few years ago in fact, my company encouraged me to advertise for them every chance I got. Whenever some product shipped, I got a free t-shirt with the Sun Microsystems logo/banner/marketing on it. Sometimes I got company trinkets that I was supposed to give away to customers, such as when I went to a trade show. Often we would get gadgets and doodads given to us to make us feel good about the projects we were working on, or the direction the company was taking. When visiting upper management people came, they would call special all-hands meetings and to bribe us to come would have some giveaway. And, of course, we could get posters and stickers and magnets touting this or that new marketing strategy. From all of this I have a huge collection in my office that is talked about around the world, literally, because of all of the years I have worked for Sun I have saved all these wacky things and keep them on shelves in my office. My office overfloweth with pens, hats, clocks, pins. cups, mugs, coasters. banners, notepads, backpacks, you name it! My walls are covered with all sorts of posters and brag sheets from past projects.

Now. however, we've been asked not to wear company branded stuff outside the company buildings. No longer are we supposed to tell people we work for Sun. Let me qualify that a bit. If I went to a big, crowded place like a Red Sox game my management would love me to wear my company stuff. But my son's soccer game or band concert or any other one-on-one situation - no way. Someone might see me there wearing my fancy Sun duds, become my best friend, and then convince me to tell them insider stuff (or nudge me to do it just out of carelessness). The thought is, I think, that if they don't know I work at Sun they can't trick me, Still, it seems kinda funny to me, but I know it's all about doing the right thing at the right time.

It makes me think of Jesus. Early on in his teaching, he would occasionally request that people not to tell who healed them or performed whatever miracle he had done on their behalf. Other times, he would do something right in front of everyone and had no problem with the story going out to all Jerusalem. Just a casual reading of the scripture makes this seem very bizarre at first glance. Why not let people know that you are the son of God? Why not allow it to be rumored that the messiah had come to save the nation? If everyone is talking about it, and there's a heightened awareness of the possibility, isn't it likely that some would look all the harder for him and be expectant of his power? Besides, I think it's recorded at least once that the person he asked to not reveal him went right ahead and did so, so it wasn't particularly effective. If anything. it does show that Jesus met with and taught all kinds of people. Some would say his protesting was to cause the man to spread it. kind of a reverse-logic thing. I dunno.

And I don't think there were any corporate spies hoping to learn something about the teaching of Jesus, so they could exploit it to their own benefit. However, Jesus did things in his time, and he did the right things at the right time. There are those today who would like to believe that Jesus failed and will have to come again to try again, but they are sadly mistaken. He did the right thing at the right time, and people bought into what he was selling not because of the marketing, the trinkets, or anything else. They bought into it because it was right. And to further my parallel, isn't it easier being a Christian in a large group than it is in a one-on-one situation? Maybe big companies have it backwards.. .

Randy