It is 1986. The commercial opens with an attractive man, late 30s, in a suit, standing in a kitchen. In the close background there is a woman in her bathrobe, zipping up the coat of a small child. As the male actor speaks the woman is opening the door and sending the child out into the cold. The male actor looks seriously into the camera and speaks in an authoritative voice.

“I’m not an doctor, but I play one on TV.” The action continues as he speaks. The woman is in distress as she looks through her medicine cabinet for just the right cough syrup for her nasty cough. Then we see the doctor impersonator, still in the authoritative voice, showing us bottle of Vicks cough syrup. He explains that there is a cough syrup for just your cough. All of our coughing needs are covered.

The actor was Peter Bergman, who played Dr. Cliff Warner on the daytime soap opera “All My Children.” The first time I heard that commercial, I went over to the TV and turned to face my wife and leaned on the TV. “I’m not a preacher, but I play one on TV.” We both laughed. What a stupid commercial. Who would ever take such a silly, slimy commercial seriously?

Yet, the next time Marsha came home from the grocery store, she had bought a bottle of Vicks Formula 44. Just in case one of us got a cough.

That commercial has been copied and mocked, but it also sold cough syrup. I thought about it the other day when I saw yet another silly copy of it on You Tube, and it made me think. I can tell you I saw on the Weather Channel that it is going to snow next Tuesday, and your response would be, “Really? Hmmm.” And that would be it. But if the guy on the Weather Channel says the same thing, and you see it, then it is a trip to the store to get food and water in case we get snowed in.

There is something about seeing it on TV, hearing it on the radio or getting it off the internet that makes something completely real in our minds. THEY KNOW! THEY ARE THE EXPERTS! “I saw Ted Danson testifying before Congress about global warming and the ozone hole and he said we have only ten years!!!” Ted Danson played a bartender on a television show. Why was what he said important? (That was fourteen years ago. Ted Danson, and you, are still here.)

Leroy Jenkins was a television evangelist of some note, based out of Delaware, Ohio. He was a faith healer in his television meetings, but he also offered healings through his ‘miracle water,” which he sold in small bottles for a high price, delivered to your door by the United States Postal Service. The water was pumped up from a well on his 30 acre parcel of land, which he called his Healing Waters Cathedral. He sold a lot of that water over the years until, in 2002, people started to complain about getting seriously ill from the water. A test done in 2003 by the state found that the water contained sewage from a nearby septic tank. I only bring Leroy up because one day someone suggested I was wrong on a point of Scripture because Leroy, on television, had said something else and anyone who disagreed with Leroy was of the devil. This lady believed him completely. He had a big deal TV ministry while I just pastored her church. She was one of the ones who eventually got sick.

Why do we have this compulsion to believe people in media? I used to believe it was because we remember Walter Cronkite and we knew that Walter would never, ever lie to us. But people who never saw Walter still believe nonsense today. It is as though there is something magical about someone who has reached Media Land. They must be believed.

We see it in politics. Words coming from conservatives and liberals. All those words are put forth as truth, but they cannot all be true. You have to choose. We see it in advertisements. This hybrid car leaves the least carbon footprint and gets the very best gas milage. On the other hand, this little subcompact just runs on gas, but has almost no emissions and it also gets the very best gas milage. Both cannot be true. You have to choose. We see it in medical. COVID is deadly and we must all obey CDC rule or we will pay a terrible price. COVID is barely worse than H1N1 flu and we should just chill out. Both cannot be true. You have to choose.

What is reality???

I know a lady. Diane. Her Mom, Sandy, and Dad, Bill, were members of the church I pastored, but Diane and her husband, Tim, went to another church. Tim did a mission trip every summer to a different place in South America. The group he worked with built clinics in remote villages. This whole family were good people. Bill was a firefighter and a Deacon in our church. He had a heart attack during a fire and had to have surgery. He died because the heart/lung machine malfunctioned. Some time later, Sandy died of cancer. Then, early one fall, Tim and some motorcycle buddies decided to take that dream trip to Alaska. They made Fairbanks and started heading back. About a hundred miles south of Fairbanks a truck lost control and hit all eight motorcyclists, killing three. Tim came home in a body bag. In time, Diane remarried. All was well. I still get the e-mail feed from my old funeral home. This morning I read that her husband, age 52, has died. I wasn’t her pastor, but after each death she would wind up in my office. Tears and sobs. Holding her hand and praying with her. I would want to be there now for her, but she has a pastor and he needs to see to her grief.

But that is reality. Our interactions with people. Our care and compassion. Our love. Our prayers. Intertwining our lives, in a Spiritual way, with others. Reality isn’t found at Amazon and it isn’t delivered by UPS. Reality isn’t given to us by the talking heads in the media or the so called experts. Reality is a hand to be held, a hug to be given, a smile to be coaxed, a tear to be dried, a word of encouragement given.

We waste a lot of time looking for that which is within our grasp. Go and be someone’s blessing.