I Got an E-mail From Jesus

My spam filter let an e-mail from am “unknown sender” named Jesus get through to my mail box today. My first reaction was to immediately delete it or hit the spam key, but instead I opened it. I thought to myself, “What if…?”

What if the “big guy” had something to tell me? Would he e-mail me like this or would he do the “burning bush” trick? Surely he is hip to  the web and the possibilities of social networking. The burning bush is  so last millennium (or, maybe older). I suppose Jesus could have left me  a voice mail or sent me a text message. He must have many options to  call upon us these days.

The e-mail read “Be grateful”. That’s all it said. No link, no  parable. It just said be grateful. I paused a moment and then wrote this  blog.

Hmmm. I guess I do have a lot to be grateful for—-a beautiful wife of  40 years, three great kids, my health, a good horse in the barn, enough  money to do as I please, etc. The list could go on and on. I am truly  blessed when compared to the others in the world; I recently read that  over 800 million people go to bed hungry at night.

But, wasn’t this just a spam message? If it was just spam, now you  understand why spammers spam. This unsolicited e-mail caused me to think  and to take action, which is the goal of every spammer—they want to  change the world (for better or worse) in some small way.

Essentially, spammers spam because they know that spam works. It may  be that one out of a million unsolicited e-mails that only a few hundred people  respond to the call to action. That click through rate may be enough for  the spammer to feel successful (or grateful).

I responded to the call to action. This time the call was not to buy Viagra or hit on a link to an eCommerce site, but nonetheless I did what the  spammer wanted me to do. The spammer made me think.

Or, was it an e-mail from Jesus?

John Bradley Jackson

Top Dog

The BirdDog Group