The Well Palmdale, CA

I just got home from dropping Sarah off at LAX this morning for her trip to go to her little brother's confirmation in Chicago. It was an early morning...very early. Well, Sarah did a great job of keeping me awake for the ride down, but the ride back meant that I would need a little help, so I turned on the radio. Well...my radio is pretty much permanantly stuck at NPR (National Public Radio). I've recently gotten tired of all other radio stations unless I'm online and listening to Last.fm. Though NPR has a reputation for good journalism and presenting news that's actually news, this is still Los Angeles and Hollywood news is still local news.

This is just one of the reasons why living in California is great. I love looking at mountains outside my window and knowing that the beach is only a short drive away. I like having culture at my fingertips as well as Pink's and In-and-Out. I even love having the former star of the "Terminator" movies and "Jingle All The Way" as my governor. This morning NPR was interviewing the Govenator in regards to a vote that he made a few months ago and all he talked about was weight lifting (tell me that doesn't give you a chuckle).

Alright...back to the commute. I was listening to th entertainment portion of the news (which is usually better on NPR, because it's not who's dating who and who's wearing what...they talk more about the industry itself), and they were talking about Molly (sorry...I've been corrected...I mean Miley) Cyrus/Hannah Montana. Apparently the 15 year old had taken some suggestive photos for a magazine. You'd think that this would be the point where I'd go on a rant about the oversexualization of our culture (which is true...but I'll save it for another post). Something else stuck out to me. The "expert" that was being interviewed was asked if this would hurt Miley Cyrus' career and he responded by saying, "Any publicity is good publicity." This is a very common notion in Hollywood today and I think has leeked into our culture.

Now, I know that we're not all trying to "get our name out there" so that we can land our next record deal...but I almost wonder if we care as much as we should about our reputations. The 8th Commandment says that "You should not give false testimony against your neighbor." God gave us this Commandment in order to protect our reputation. Our reputation is valuable in the eyes of God...so it should be valuable to us, too. Now, this doesn't mean that we should always be concerned about what others think about us...rather we should look at Luther's explanation to the 8th Commandment: "We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way." I think that we can also apply this to not only how we deal with others...but also how we deal with ourselves. It's not about worrying about what others think about you...it's about not betraying yourself. You are God's child. He's given you that reputation, and we should do all that we can to make sure to speak well of what He has done for us and to explain who we are as His child in the kindest way. Your reputation is valuable, because it's from God. That's why we need to pay attention as to how we portray ourselves and how others view us...they are not only seeing who we are...they are also seeing God, too.

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