Go BIGG!
Truth: We live in a celebrity culture; and, this world is fixated on it.
Little girls want to emulate the latest popular singer (think “Swifties”).
Our boys look to the next-best-sports-phenomenon (Christiano Ronaldo? LeBron James? 🤷♀️).
We find our heroes in the lives of the wealthy, the popular, the powerful, the charming, charismatic, and the famous.
What has happened that we look to these to find our identity, some kind of personal warmth and significance, basking in the shadow of these people?
Sociologists call it BIRGing (Basking In Reflected Glory): finding value in association with someone else’s success, because we have a NEED to identify ourselves with someone or something.
We are not enough, in and of ourselves.
We even transfer this within Christian circles: popular pastors, speakers, worship leaders (particularly those with a performance-based-style), authors, scholars, and mega-church-leaders.
While it is good to have someone to emulate, to idolize and put them on a pedestal only sets these folks up for failure, and when they fall….ours is right behind…
…and, sometimes we never recover from the disappointment.
*****
This became the direction my thoughts scurried last Sunday in church as Bay preached on the life (and death) of Stephen (his story is a good read in Acts 6 & 7).
Actually, Bay shared that same message in four services, so I had plenty of time to ponder the life of this early church martyr and try to put him in this context.
BIRGing would have appalled, horrified and disgusted Stephen.
Stephen had died to his own fleshly desires; and, walked by faith and not by sight.
He had buried his past, when he gave his life completely over to Jesus…
…and, was raised to live a new life under the daily power and influence of the Holy Spirit.
In his “resurrected life,” Stephen stopped living for the applause of man; and, lived for the Way of Jesus.
He didn’t worry about what others thought of him.
He wasn’t ruffled by politics or a need for power or control.
He stopped (if he ever even tried) attempting to fix the world around him, and focused on the Gospel (and serving it to those around him in good and practical ways).
Stephen stopped pointing fingers to place blame; he never tried to defend himself; not once did he express anger or frustration over his mistreatment.
When the others gnashed their teeth at him in anger; Stephen was calm and confident – ready to die yet another death for the cause of the Gospel.
You see, Stephen died way before he died.
He knew his life was not his own, it had been bought with a price, and he was a new creation.
That’s why, when his accusers “fixed their gaze on him,” they saw his face “like the face of an angel.”
My conclusion on Sunday?
Forget culture.
Toss BIRGing into the firepit.
Instead,
GO BIGG….
Bask in God’s glory: immersing ourselves into His presence, power, and majesty; finding our confidence, identity, eternal hope, value, and purpose for living through His plan for us and all mankind…
What’s that plan? Stephen grasped it…and Paul…and John…and Peter…and a Hall-of-Faith-host-of-others (see Hebrews 11):
God’s plan has always been that His people incarnate the Gospel willingly, boldly, and faithfully.
My mind may have chased a lot of rabbits, down many a different trail, but eventually here’s where the trail ended.
Just like these folks of faith from years past, we embody the Gospel when we:
…die with Christ, bury our old life of sin and shame, and allow Jesus, through His Spirit, to live through us…having been raised to walk in newness of life!
When this is our daily declaration, others watch as the Gospel takes on flesh in us.
Seriously there’s no need for the false narrative of celebrity culture, no need for BIRGing… just, BIGGing: immersing ourselves in God’s joy-filled presence, and taking on His amazing plan for all mankind – THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST…
It’s the Gospel of Jesus that changes the world.
