Image Consultant.

Have you ever seen Disney’s “The Kid”? Bruce Willis plays an image consultant. He tells people what to wear or do with their hair, etc in order to “get ahead” in their career. Sadly, his own life is a mess. (It is a great movie though with an interesting twist).

This past weekend an event happened in Major League Baseball. Alex Rodriguez (aka A-Rod) hit his 660th career home run. That is news worth shouting about…except if you are the New York Yankee brass. Because of A-Rod’s tainted past (admission of PEDs and full-season suspension last year) they have refused to publicize it or to honor a $6 million clause in his contract. They have removed him from any publicity and never once said anything about his accomplishment in the media. Reasoning? Bad media image by A-Rod.

Frankly, I don’t care. In my mind neither should he since he is still earning multiple millions per year for playing baseball. If I was his consultant I would say, “Let it go. It looks better.” After all…that’s what an image consultant does. Right?

In our media-saturated age, image consultants are invaluable (to some). Athletes. Movie stars. Politicians. CEOs. Even religious leaders. Make a mistake? Have your consultant clean it up for you. Do something good? Have your consultant do the requisite publicity. ( I realize there are some good men/women out there who do things for the right reason).

What about those of us who follow Jesus? What kind of image are we sending?