My favorite super bowl commercial this year surprisedme. Like most people, I am usually asucker for the one with the baby, and his smartphone, with an E-trade app. Or maybe it’s little kid dressed up likeDarth Vader trying to make a car start by using the force. The Doritos commercials were pretty good thisyear, apparently a product of a fan-submitted video contest. Who doesn't want to see a baby flung throughthe air by his grandmother?
But my favorite was none of these. It was actually a very seriouscommercial. It was the one for Chryslerthat aired at half time. It starredClint Eastwood’s compelling, hard-edged voice saying, “It’s half time inAmerica too…and we’re all scared because we know this isn’t a game…” Now, for just a moment, put aside whetherthis commercial had any political implications, and put aside the factthat it was a product endorsement. And just listen to the final words of the script:
“This country can’t be knocked out with one punch, we getright back up again and when we do the world’s gonna hear the roar of ourengines. Yea, it’s half time America andour second half’s about to begin.”
(You can see the full commercial here.)
It’s not so much what he is saying, but how he says it thatmakes the ad so powerful. It’s the samevoice that took cheesy, bad-scripted “spaghetti westerns” and made them hugesuccesses in Clint Eastwood’s career. Itis a voice that communicates severity, an iron will, a definiteness ofintention. It’s a voice that says that evil will be punishedand that justice will prevail. It’s avoice that says I’m not going down without a fight. It's the kind of voice, you might imagine, that God would have.
In the Scriptures, God has many voices. We don’t get to hear them with our ears, butwe can imagine them in our spirits. Hehas a tender, compassionate voice, but he also has the roar of a lion. And he wants his voice to be heard throughus, his followers. There are times whenours is that voice of compassion. Butsometimes we need to have this other voice. The best way I can hear it is in this Chrysler commercial. It is the sound of tenacious, unflinching,unapologetic faith that is rooted in a big God, the love of what is good, andthe hatred of what is evil. It growlswhen it sees the weak being oppressed. It resounds when it encounters temptation. It erupts against that which would oppose the things of God.
In light of this world we are living in today, have you found this voice?
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