Acting Like a Robot

You knew it would come to this, didn’t you? You pick up the phone and the cheerful voice on the other end introduces herself as Samantha West. Bright and engaging, she proceeds before you realize it is a soft-sell pitch for insurance. But as she continues, something doesn’t seem quite right. Perhaps it’s the phone connection. Maybe it’s her voice, you wonder. Finally you blurt out, “Are you are a real voice or are you digital?” Her charming laugh in response is winsome. But then when you try to engage her in small talk, she balks. Still curious you ask, “What’s the main ingredient in tomato soup?” She replies she doesn’t understand the question. Turns out “Samantha West” is “a robot who denies she is a robot,” who “functions much like a remote-controlled car, operated by a real person working at a call center outside the U.S.” (TIME 12/30/13, p. 14). Why “Samantha?” So the thick foreign accents of the overseas callers won’t give themselves away. Instead, these “human puppeteers choose from a series of recorded responses, using West’s voice to hide their accents.” As TIME magazine observes, “she” may very well become the future of telemarketing. Maybe they borrowed a page from Heaven‘s playbook. After all, isn’t it God’s strategy to use your voice—and not just your voice, but your life, your mannerisms, your very presence—as a representation of the Lord Jesus Himself? So that when people hear you, they are strangely drawn to Him. Jesus pointed out, “‘It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters’” (Matthew 10:25 NIV). Because when you are like Him—when you “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5)—you become a winsome and contagious “sell” for the Master, don’t you? Which is what Steps to Christ is saying: “The humblest and poorest of the disciples of Jesus can be a blessing to others. They may not realize that they are doing any special good, but by their unconscious influence they may start waves of blessing that will widen and deepen, and the blessed results they may never know until the day of final reward.” “When the love of Christ is enshrined in the heart, like sweet fragrance it cannot be hidden. Its holy influence will be felt by all with whom we come in contact” (83, 77). So no matter how insignificant you may think yourself to be, when Jesus’ love radiates from your life, you become Heaven’s agent for drawing the people in your world to Christ. Want to know how to be filled up with that love every new day? Click on the “A New Way to Pray” banner at this website (www.pmchurch.tv) and discover how to put the radical law—“what you behold you become”—into action in your life. After all, you are no “Samantha West”—you are the friend of God Himself. No wonder He has such confidence in you!