There is a phenomenon alive in our culture that I find increasingly hard to digest in the belly of my soul. There is a river, feeding a deep and dark ocean of falseness, fed by multiple streams of thought, behaviors, practices and philosophies that in turn feeds a culture that writhes in deception. It feeds a thirst in our souls for something satisfying that we cannot easily define, but it “satisfies” in a way that destroys us from within. Oprah Winfrey feeds it; the “Key to Miracles” book/class/mindset feeds it; FaceBook’s “like” and “share” feeds it; instagram and ticktok feeds it, the “fame engine” of our culture feeds it; certain Podcasts feed it and many other factors and people feed it. All these streams flow into the cultural river that dumps its effluent into the culture that all of us swim in every day.
Some years ago, an actress friend of mine saw a friend of hers, another actress, on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (I told you it was awhile ago!) The actress had a happy face on as Johnny interviewed her about her latest film. The obligatory clips was shown of the soon-to-be-released project. The actress was all smiles about her film, her love life and her life in general. Happy. But my friend, who knew both the actress and her assistant had a chance meeting with the assistant later that same week. The assistant, in a moment of candor, said the moment the actress passed behind the curtain and the cameras were off, a different story unfolded. She was immediately hyper-tense and collapsed into a string of demanding commands. “My life is a falling apart. Call my astrologist. I need and appoint now. Make sure I can see her as soon as possible.”
The whole Carson interview was a grand act, a performance that hid the reality of lie. She wasn’t happy. She wasn’t all “put together.” Everything wasn’t “smashing.” In fact, she was a wreck. It was all a lie.
And that in a nutshell, is our culture in spades. That is our culture on steroids. Phony.
Two things impressed this on me yesterday. One, reading Rod Dreher’s Live Not By Lies. The whole substance of the book is like a massive diamond rock in the middle of the raging river of our culture, standing and shining because it will not be moved by the lies seeking to sink it in the darkest ocean at the end of the river’s journey.
The second thing that impressed me (depressed me?!), occurred on Sunday morning as the pastor of the church I was visiting ascended to the platform to address the congregation. He was smiling. I’ve visited this church three or four times. He is always smiling. And this thought sprang into my consciousness. “When was the last time this pastor wasn’t smiling on a Sunday morning? Can I trust a man who is always smiling? What does he do when he reads the psalms and comes across lament or the prophets and reads about mourning and lament over the state of the nation?”
I wonder how many people in our churches have similar thoughts?
I wonder.
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