Vanity Fair

I will venture to the Mall on a Friday night only for a close friend, and I mean only for a close friend. I hate the Mall on a Friday. Absolutely despise it. Mostly because it is literally overrun with hormone-filled, cussing teenagers who don't seem to know how to practice courtesy (I would venture a guess that most of them don't know how to spell courtesy).

But as a dear friend's birthday is coming up this Sunday and as I hadn't gotten her a present yet, off to the Mall I went. I had no idea what to get her; I basically planned to go by my instinct-- I figured the right present would just "jump out" at me. One thing was for sure- I did not want to a single minute in Bath & Body Works (which is actually military code for "biological warfare upon the Y chromosome").

Wouldn't you know it, after searching practically the whole mall, I wound up in stupid Bath & Body Works. Sheesh. Fortunately, I had my folks with me (I needed a ride to the mall 'cuz my car's in the shop and they wanted to go out and do something), so what ended up happening was that I let my mom spend the majority of the time in the store while my dad and I talked outside, but I did have to spend an excruciating 7 minutes (at least) inside that fruity-smelling hell-hole.

I noticed something about the mall-- it reminded me of Vanity Fair from Pilgrim's Progress. To be honest, I've long made that comparison in my mind, but this is the first time I think I've written it down. It seems like you can buy everything at the Mall except truth. You can get clothes that make you look slimmer, sunglasses that make you look cooler, and even get massages that make you feel less stressed. But eventually it all fades-- the clothes go out of style, the sunglasses break or get scratched, the massage feeling goes away. And so the consumer returns and exchanges their money for the fleeting pleasures of materialism. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating a boycott of capitalism-- I'm advocating a boycott of idolatry. Heck, I wound up getting a pretty sweet shirt tonight-- I'll probably wear it to church on Sunday (it was marked down on clearance from $45.00 to $8.50!)-- but when you see people loaded down with bags and bags of junk they just bought, you're a little perplexed.

I spent an evening once witnessing to the kids who hang out at the mall and the surrounding area including Java N' Jazz and the Movie Theater-- they weren't really receptive. But maybe the Gospel should go back to the Mall. Maybe instead of the masses being driven to buy the temporal wares of the Mall, they might instead "buy gold refined in the fire, so that [they] may become rich..." (Rev. 3:18).

Christian and Faithful were imprisoned when they brought the good news to Vanity Fair. The worst that could happen to me would be that I would get kicked out of the mall. Kicked out of the mall-- oh no, whatever would I do? (I hope you're detecting the sarcasm, 'cuz I'm laying it on pretty thick).

It's late, so I'm going to bed now.