The Fine Print
By M Newberg
Read the fine print. The fine print is found in so many places in our lives today. Sometimes it’s not found because it is so small! As I see it, the fine print is a way for a company or person to communicate to you without you knowing that they are.
Contracts have it. Notifications from bill collectors. TV commercials have it. It’s unethical in my opinion. It’s done intentionally to keep most people from reading it. We don’t want to read it in this fast-paced world. If I want to buy a house or car, I don’t want to take the time to read the small print, I’m worn out, tired, by the time the paperwork is ready to sign I don’t want to take the time to read it. That’s what they expect us to do.
Medications have the small print. Medication commercials are probably the worst. A paragraph at the bottom of the screen that to read it you must pause the commercial, go find a magnifying glass, get about an inch from the TV and then maybe you could read it.
Why? Why do companies do this? They do it to protect themselves. Disclaimers and legal jargon that most of us wouldn’t understand anyway. For example, if you take a new medication and find yourself harmed from it, you’ll probably lose a lawsuit because they already gave you (in small print) every reason why you shouldn’t take that medication.
“Mr. Jones, did you read the pamphlet that came with the medication? Did you read the warnings on the commercial? Did you read the small print before taking the medication?”
“Well, not all of it your honor, my doctor prescribed it, so I took it.”
“Mr. Jones, you were irresponsible in your duty to read the fine print before taking the medicine, therefore the case is dismissed!”
The fine print is not going away anytime soon, and I doubt that most of us will begin to read it either.
There is one place you don’t have to worry about deception and hidden motives, and that’s in God’s word. He is up front about the risks in following Him. Count the cost, the scriptures suggest. Look at how many people were persecuted in the bible and yet they continued to take the risk of following Him.
Luke 14:25-33 NASB
25 Now large crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who are watching it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish!’ 31 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to face the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and requests terms of peace. 33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
The Father in heaven has no hidden agenda. He is righteous and just and is not out to trick us. No fine print just the facts written out for us in plain sight; easy to read. We have a lot to lose and to gain from following Him. The world around us has counted that cost and has chosen to go their own way. They want instant gratification here and now. The sad thing is that they get their worldly reward now and nothing in the life to come. Their reward pales in comparison to His!
It’s a struggle for most of us to pay the cost of following Yeshua. It can be a hard road to take but our reward is waiting for us with Him!
So, the next time that you see a commercial, buy a car, or take a new medication that has fine print, you may want to read it and then count the cost. Yahovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is worth the risk. He’s the honest One who doesn’t hide His motives as opposed to the world around us.
This article is designed to educate, inform, and bring awareness of the King of Kings, Yeshua is LORD, and to help you to consider this for your life…count the cost! Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, nor have any legal training.
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