Corinthian Leather

Those of us that are old enough to remember back to the 1970’s remember that, in that era, Chrysler introduced a new smaller luxury model called the Cordoba.  To promote the car, Chrysler’s created television ads featuring the prominent Latin actor Ricardo Montalban.  In the ads, Montalban boasted about the Cordoba’s many luxurious features including the “soft Corinthian leather” seats.  The way it rolled off his tongue sounded so wonderful it made the car seem like it literally dripped with luxury, comfort and prestige.  Consequently, Chrysler dealers had customers lined up to buy the car and almost every buyer ordered the optional “Corinthian leather” seats.  From 1975 through to 1990, Corinthian leather was available on a number of Chrysler models.

This is where the history of the term “Corinthian leather” gets a bit cloudy.  Some believe that the term was coined by Montalban himself, who loved to ad lib his lines. Another story has it that the Chrysler advertising execs came up with the term.  The bottom line was that the leather did not come from the Greek city of Corinth, or anywhere else in Europe, but it reportedly came from a plant in Newark, New Jersey. However, that didn’t keep the Cordoba from becoming a huge marketing hit.  Nobody knew or cared what Corinthian Leather was but that it literally dripped of luxury and they wanted a car equipped with it!

I guess that we all want to have a life that has substance – something that is more than a clever marketing ploy.  Are we men and women of integrity and spiritual depth, or is it all a marketing facade like Corinthian Leather?  Does our public image in which we clothe ourselves really align with who we are in private before God?  This is really what growth is all about.  We become on the outside what God is building up in on the inside and not the other way around.  We concentrate on taking little baby steps of heading in the right direction towards our loving Savior and concentrating on growth in Him.

We reach a point where we realize that we will never be a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a millionaire, or a famous heart surgeon.  We may be angry that our unrealistic dreams of that big business deal didn’t come to fruition.  Reality sets in that our most worthy goal must be to become more like the one who gave Himself for us on the cross.  Yes, we are flawed and we will never be perfect, but we can seek to allow God to grow us so that we are not the same tomorrow as we were today.  The beauty of that is we can encourage others in their growth at the same time that God helps us to grow.  We are called to a higher calling than the surgeon or the millionaire.  We are called to point others to God and help them be more than just Corinthian Leather but instead whole and faithful servants of the Living God.  

^{1SA 16:7} But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

Richard Lewis
Pathway Christian Church
Riverside, CA