Of our culture, it seems. The possibility of going viral is just around the corner. Everyone has a voice, and the means to millions hearing what we have to say is literally in the palm of our hands. Securing a market share in people’s attention seems to be the driving force behind so much of what we say and do.
This isn’t new, really. Fame has always been the gasoline. The means have changed, but not the motive. The potential audience has broadened considerably, but not the craving in the human heart. And of course, what we all deep down know to be true is that there’s amount of fakeness involved in fame—both in the celebrities we idolize and in what it takes to get there.
Ok—maybe fame is too strong of a word. Substitute, whatever less-megalomaniacal synonym you like: Opinion. Recognition. Honor. Greatness. Respect. Glory.
Whatever word you prefer, it’s into this aspect of the human heart that Jesus says,
“Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth, there is nothing false about him.”
John 7:18
The transformation needed is not one that eschews all fame, but rather redirects fame. A transformation that makes God’s fame the gasoline that energizes all that we do.
This is the fuel source we were built to run on. This is how we become truthfully human.
