Crazier and Crazier

Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them Psalm 115:8

We become like what we revere. We become like who we respect. We become like those we admire. We become like those we imitate. And we become like people we hang out with. The Bible is clear throughout that loving, revering, respecting, trusting, believing in, and imitating, are all actions of worship—of giving glory.

The easiest and best definition I’ve heard of for glory is to “make famous.” When we glorify someone we talk about them. We advertise for them. We explain, defend, admire out loud, brag on, and talk them up to everyone around us. In most cases, we copy and imitate them. And in the process, the Bible says we become like them.

One easy example of this is to watch little boys playing basketball. They wear their favorite player’s jersey. They walk like them. They talk like them. They strut and tease like them. They try to do the moves like their favorite player. If they are good at what they are doing, anyone who knows the one they are copying, can tell immediately who they admire. This is because they have become like the one they are imitating, the one they love, the one they are worshiping.

You might balk at words like love and worship here. But the Bible doesn’t. When it says Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mk 12:30) it is saying, “Imitate God.” It is saying, “Talk him up.” It is saying, “Walk like him, talk like him, make his moves, think like him. Do it to the point where if anyone is watching, they will want to be like him too.” The Bible even says to put on Christ like a garment—wear his jersey (Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27). What we see on playgrounds all over the world, is people of all ages, imitating their heroes. Walking like them, talking like them, imitating them, loving them, worshiping them, glorifying them, and becoming like them.

If you want to see where society is headed, notice who the people are admiring. Who are their heroes? Who they are becoming like? The world has always exalted sports heroes, movie stars, and politicians. But bereft of God, these people are always looking for ways to push the boundaries of what is acceptable to nice people. They want to have the reputation of being nice, but they want to do evil at the same time. So they ride right up against what culture will allow them to do, but always pushing the limits.

Of course there aren’t many people who call what they are doing evil. They are simply being themselves, or expressing themselves. Some athletes cheat, but call it leveling the field. Some call it being more cunning than the opposition. The sexually immoral call it living together rather than whoring around. Though phrases like “so, you’re finally going to make her an honest woman” still abound. Homosexuality isn’t a sexual perversion anymore, now it is being gay (a word that doesn’t describe most “gay” people, except temporarily). It went from something people did to who people are. Sadly, this is a lie thought up to justify evil.

One thing to notice is that as the culture slides into talking about evil like it is good, and good as if it is evil, the whole culture slowly slides into being evil, all the while calling it good. I remember a story I heard when I was a kid, about a town that was cursed by an evil witch. It seems that she snuck into the town in the night and poisoned the well. When anyone drank from the well, it make them just a little bit crazy. As they drank more and more, they became more and more crazy, until they needed to be institutionalized. As more and more people drank from the well and more and more people became crazier and crazier, fewer and fewer people were still sane. This happened until the tipping point when there were more crazy people than sane, and the crazies decided that the sane were actually the crazy and they began locking up the sane people, calling them crazy.

Our leaders and heroes are crazy and they are leading us into craziness. That’s the bad news. The good news is that God is still in charge and he won’t let his world be permanently crazy. He has created the world in a way that crazy really is crazy, but more importantly sinful is really sinful. But God is greater than our sin. And he has never abandoned his people in all of history. Jesus is Lord of the universe and he will never be taken down, no matter how evil the evil becomes.

Here’s the application: Remember that God is God. Remember that God wins. Remember that you become like who you worship, imitate, hang out with. Stop idolizing those whose end is death. Start idolizing Jesus, the one who died for you because he loves you. Start worshipping Jesus, the one who lives eternally with the Father in glory.