Thursday, February 15, 2007

Every Sale Begins with a Smile

This was recently posted over on subversive1 but is too good not to share here.

This is a 7 minute clip from the movie The Big Kahuna. The movie is about three men: Bob (Peter Facinelli) is a young man on a business trip with his two co-workers Larry (Kevin Spacey) & Phil (Danny DeVito). The movie takes place in a small banquet room in a depressingly nondescript hotel in Wichita, Kansas, where the three men are trying to make connections at a convention so they can sell their company's products: Industrial Lubricants.

This scene takes place near the end of the movie. Young Bob has had a chance to land a big sale with a huge distributor -- in fact, rather miraculously, he got a few minutes alone with the distributor's President! Instead of talking about their products Bob, eager young christian that he is, took the opportunity to tell the guy about Jesus and offer "salvation" to him. While the distributor President listened attentively, Bob ended up losing the sale, and probably their jobs. The scene opens with Larry angrily taking Bob to task for what he has done. The scene closes with Phil's chillingly poignant remarks.
The movie's tag line is "Every sale begins with a smile."

This scene makes me cringe at what has become of the idea of being an evangelical christian. It makes me wonder what it means to be truly, life-alteringly honest (and blunt) with myself, especially in the context of being:

Jesus' friend
Jesus' follower
Jesus' disciple
Jesus' witness

Jesus' Marketing Rep?

I think I need to go ask my neighbors how their kids are...just because.

What do you think?

~ Keith

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