Episode #1 - Brand Name

Have you ever wondered why clothes that are essentially the exact same look & material can be priced so differently between brands? It has everything to do with the designer and the brand name - that is what makes something valuable. Well...that is exactly what gives you such great worth - your designer. You have been made in the image of God.

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

And we’re back! Welcome to the Set Your Mind Above podcast, where everyday, ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths! I am your host BJ Sipe, and I’m so glad you’ve tuned in today! I am excited share my life & my faith with you, and I sure hope you’ll do the same with me. 

(Ad lib any additional intro thoughts)

This past weekend our dearest friends Kevin & Erica and their son William flew in to see us here in Kentucky all the way from Oregon. It’s been far too long since we’ve been able to see them, so we have been looking forward to it for months. They are going to be with us for two whole weeks, and we have several things planned that we would love to do with them. We’re going to visit the Ark Encounter & the Creation Museum, show them some of the local sights, etc. Well, we were sitting around our living room Sunday night talking about what we wanted to do the next day since I have the day off on Mondays, when the girls suggested we go to the outlet mall in Louisville. Kevin and I gave them a hard time for a few minutes about wanting to go shopping on our first day together, but we agreed because so long as we were together it really didn’t matter what we were doing. So off to the mall we went, and after lunch at Little Italy we started to hit all of our regular shops that we love. Eddie Bower, North Face, Colombia, Nike, as well as a Ghirardelli shop that we had no idea that was there (fun fact, there are only around 20 stores in the United States and I’ve now been to 4 of them). As we went from store to store, I was amazed at the price differences for essentially the same kinds of clothing between each store. A pair of kaki pants at Old Navy cost around 15 dollars, but a pair of pants that looked exactly the same at Banana Republic were 85 dollars. An even better example, I recently picked up a polo shirt at Sam’s Club for just  7 dollars. While I was walking around Nike, I noticed a polo that looked nearly identical to the one I had just bought – it was even made out of the same material. However, the cost of the Nike polo that looked exactly the same was 65 dollars. That’s crazy, isn’t it? They look the same, feel the same, and are made out of the same material, but one has a much greater value than the other. Why is that? Because of the brand name & the designer. A polyester shirt is nothing special, but as soon as you throw a big brand name on it like a Nike swoosh suddenly that shirt has a much greater value. It has nothing to do with the material, but it has everything to do with the designer. 

I want you to stop and ask yourself this question: what gives you worth as a person? Where do you find your value? For so many people, they attribute their worth to things like their physical appearance, their social status, or their career. Our culture pushes these things, indoctrinating the moldable minds of our youth into thinking that if they want to be important or worth anything that they must look & dress a certain way. Being lower class is looked down upon by many, and the great American dream founded upon the almighty dollar reinforces in people’s minds that if you have more that you’re worth more. But are these the kinds of things that actually give us worth? If I may be so bold, if this is what you look to in order to find your value and identity, you have believed a lie. Beauty fades. Money can be lost in an instant. A successful career is soon forgotten. I believe that the answer to what gives us worth in our lives is found in the story of creation, in Genesis 1:26-27, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” You have been fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. Not only did he form and fashion your body in the womb, but for those who have put on Christ in new birth he formed and fashioned you in Jesus. You are his workmanship, the greatest work of his hands, and you bear his image. That makes you more valuable than you could possibly understand. In fact, your worth is so great that it was worth Jesus going to the cross in order to redeem you back to him. You see, your worth is not tied to anything about you, it has everything to do with your designer. It is our designer who is great, whose name is above every name & whose name we bear. Understanding this, that leaves us with several applications. First, every single person that has ever lived and ever will live has the exact same worth. The richest person & the poorest person, the wisest to ever live & the simplest to ever live, the healthy & the sick, the CEO & the secretary, all have been created in the image of God & have equal value. Second, your worth is something that will never change. It cannot fade nor can it be taken away from you, because your worth is founded in the living God. So, the next time you go shopping, or tomorrow as you pick out your clothes for the day, take a moment to reflect on just how important you are as one who bears the image of God. 

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Friday’s, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and weekly video sessions that are uploaded on Saturdays. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from everyday, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.