I was able to catch some of tonight's American Idol, and I was reminded of how entertaining the show's audition episodes are. (The two talented girls above are my two favorites so far. They both gave me goose bumps.)
I know I've alluded to American Idol in past entries, and how it reminds me of how good God's grace is, in that it does away with any requirement on our part to "perform" up to a certain level; Christ does that for us.
But as I was watching tonight, I couldn't help but to see that this show is saturated with spirituality. The countless stories of people coming from harsh realities with dreams of becoming something more, something glorious, the delusional self-perceptions that some of the horrendous singers have, the power of human words of judgment, the praise and adoration of beauty (and the condemnation and berating of ugliness)...all of this, and much more, is there, absolutely imbuing every single minute.
Most of all, the celebrations and vehement diatribes that immediately follow these auditions reminds me that humans are undeniably wired for acceptance and approval. Watching just a few minutes of one of these audition episodes confirms this.
It is stunning to see how approval from just two out of three human beings, and a subsequent promised trip to an egregiously overrated place called Hollywood, can cause someone to celebrate more brightly, loudly, and joyfully than any grateful Christian I've ever seen. It is also stunning to see how rejection from the same two (or even worse, three) judges can cause someone to curse, cry, and suffer more than any repentant Christian I've ever seen.
Christians are, after all, approved (for eternity, mind you, and not just for a few fleeting years, or even minutes) by someone who matters the most. His approval means everything and makes all other approvals (and rejections) irrelevant, is earned and secured by someone infinitely greater than them, and ensures their future destination: a place far better than the best thing they have yet to think of because it will unite them with the very one who got them there. Yet, at the same time, it is Christians who are compelled to hate the horrible vestiges of the old death that still linger in them (though for most, these vestiges still compose the majority), to the point of uttering heartfelt anathemas towards those remnants and towards the self, to seek out dire repair, with tears, because of the extent of the damage and their inability to fix it on their own, and to writhe in misery until their current state meets their future glory.
The problem for Christians, it would appear, is the same problem that those excessively invested contestants on American Idol have: misplaced worship and significance. In a word: idols.
"You shall have no other gods before me." - Exodus 20:3
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