Here’s a comedian’s insight that’s no joke. Dennis Miller opined on the self-infatuation of our modern world: “Never have lives less lived been more chronicled.”
As if everyone can hardly wait to see what I had for dinner. Or how I can lip-synch a song. And look at ME giving food or money to the needy!
In the age of selfies, we’ve swept away history as irrelevant and religion as passé while we grasp for three golden orbs: here, now, and me.
About 2,000 years ago, a Jewish rabbi-turned-Christian-evangelist, looking toward our age, penned these words:
“In the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God…They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.” (2 Tim 3:1-4, NLT)
Pretty accurate, wouldn’t you say? In his book “Empire of Illusion,” Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges explains:
“The cult of self dominates our cultural landscape. This cult has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation.…
“We have a right, in the cult of the self, to get whatever we desire. We can do anything, even belittle and destroy those around us, including our friends, to make money, to be happy, and to become famous.”
How did we get here? The Bible warns, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb 2:3). At first it wasn’t outright rejection; the older generation simply neglected the gospel. The next gen grew up without it, so sought other things to fill their spiritual void. But it hasn’t worked at all.
Michael Stafford in the Great Bend Tribune writes: “According to the Bible, the ancient Israelites strayed from worship of God into idolatry. Today, America has done the same except, rather than placing a golden calf upon an altar, we have erected a mirror.”
There’s a world of difference between self-absorption and self-awareness, between feeling great about ourselves and actually striving for greatness. People are seen either as commodities or consumers. America now lives by self’s religious mottos: “I’m worth it” and “Perception is reality.”
Psychologist Tasha Eurich observes, “On a good day, about 80 percent of people are lying about themselves—to themselves.”
No need to look far for the rancid fruit from this tree. Depression, suicide, drug overdose, the casual hookup generation, the objectification of women and evisceration of manhood, the worship of wealth and celebrity, the discarding of offspring, and everywhere, everywhere, broken hearts and bankrupt souls.
Listen, my friend! When, like the prodigal, you find yourself sitting in a pigsty of despair, when no one in this world will give you a thing, I pray you come to yourself, and know that a loving Father is waiting for you. Come home. He’ll run to you, embrace you as you are, and cover you with kisses. He asks that you be honest with Him and accept the only real answer to life: Jesus saves.
The image in the mirror will suddenly change! “Looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord,” you will be “transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18, NASB).
Article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch, Saturday, October 7, 2023