Worship and Kirk Cameron and his new book and telling scary dudes about Jesus

Why do we get all awestruck around famous people?  Are we trying to horn in on their glory?  Is worship so built-in that we can't help it, we've got to do it so bad we'll even misdirect it?  Here's Kirk Cameron's description of what life was like when he was a Growing Pains celebrity:

Wherever I went people catered to me. Limousines carted me off to the next gig. Waiters comped my meals. Flight attendants whispered, “Mr. Cameron, why don’t you come with me?” and escorted me to first class...

When I arrived at a party, everyone sat up and took notice. The room buzzed with not-so-quiet whispers: “Isn’t that Kirk Cameron?” The adoration was obvious in the body language, facial expressions and eagerness of those around me. All of it baffled me beyond belief. I was in the midst of a phenomenon I felt I had no hand in creating.

If I didn’t have something, it was only because I didn’t want it. I was a devout atheist, livin’ large, hanging out with the beautiful people.

Years later when people asked about that time in my life, I defined it like this: Imagine a world where whatever you want is given to you as quickly as possible. When you walk into a room, all the adults smile at you, talk nicely and say, “What do you want? Okay, I’ll give that to you.”

Everything in your life is carefully placed with the intent to make you happy. If you aren’t happy, no expense is too great in order to fix the situation. As far as you can tell, you are the center of the universe. Everything revolves around you, your schedule, your dreams and wishes. You are more important to adults than other kids are. “Why is that?” your little mind asks. And the only answer you can come up with is that you are very, very unique.

People treated him that way voluntarily!  He didn't ask for it, pay for it, steal it or beg for it -- you couldn't get it that way anyway, could you?  It had to be voluntary.  In fact, people paid him, for the priviledge of being in awe of him.  Yup, that's worship. 

Still Growing is his new book.  You can read about it, and how he came to Jesus here on Tim Challies blog.

This is the kind of thing he does today (7 minutes of telling scary strangers about Jesus):

Comments

[Kelly]

Wow! This is powerful stuff- makes you want to go out and talk to some people and make a difference. Thanks for sharing! (I came over from your daughter's blog)