In fifth grade, my best friend, Brian Poirier, and I were hooked on Star Wars. The addiction didn’t stop at the movies, but resulted in compulsive behavior to buy, collect, and trade Star Wars cards. We would bring them to school everyday and meet at recess to discuss the characters, locations, devices, or starships we had in our card collection. For my eleventh birthday, I received many packs of cards and other accessories to store my collection. I couldn’t think of anything else in the world that I could want, but more Star Wars cards. Brian and I would love to just look through each others cards and trade for different ones. It wasn’t long before Brian had moved on to skateboarding and fishing and I was into baseball cards and other things.
According to Microsoft Encarta, a fad is “something that is embraced very enthusiastically for a short time.” Fads define our society. Whether it is Beanie Babies, Atkins, Chia pets, disco, or iPods, America loves to find the next best thing and ride it hard until it dies. Don’t deceive yourself by thinking that Christians are exempt. WWJD, FROG, Purpose Driven Life, and Left Behind are all evident marks upon the history of the modern church in which Christians have bought into the most popular marketing technique, but only for a short time. Fads are a good recognizable example of life under the sun. They show the banality of our life here on earth and how, like fireworks, bring satisfaction for a short time, but quickly fade away. We feel like this new CD, movie, outfit, video game, party, or relationship will bring the missing satisfaction that will make us happy. But the reason that fads exist is because even the pagans recognize the short-lived nature of the enjoyments and how they lack eternal fulfillment. Oh how sad it is when Christians not only invest in worthless trivialities, but after trying it once and realizing the lack of value in the endeavor, go back to it and pursue it again. Pursuing things under the sun is like grasping at the wind.
It amazes me how it seems that Christians don’t believe or obey the word of God when it says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world…the world is passing away along with its desires” () and when it tells of Moses rejecting “the fleeting pleasures of sin” (). God warns of the worthlessness of the world and tells of the greatness and eternal value of worshipping Him, which is done by reading His word and setting one’s “mind on things above and not on earthly things” ().
The reason that there is such a reversal in the church today is that God’s word has become a fad. People get excited to read Scripture by either a powerful sermon or a New Year’s resolution and then when the excitement leaves, all that is left is a unmotivated heart that is content with worshipping things on this earth rather than God. Thus when Scripture becomes a fad, God is laid aside for idols made by human hands and minds. May God’s word never become dull to us, but remain refreshing and soul-satisfying.
