Don’t look to others.

How much do I give of my life to God? Just as much as he, or almost as much as she? What will our church create in program and mission? Will we become like the “fastest growing church in America,” or something else, something better?

Don’t look to others human institutions to see what a church should do or how it should be run. Don’t look to people to see how much you should value or think of God or how much you should love him.

When it feels like everyone is imitating the popular, the famous, the models and successful, what could be wrong in that?

We are painfully incapable, it would seem in this day of mimicry, to be able to do anything without comparing ourselves to others. We buy a car because he bought one. We watch a TV show because they watch it. We buy a cell phone because our friends have one. We shop here, vacation there, decorate our house, eat gluten-free (for no reason), vote for this political party, all because she does. We are alarmingly addicted to other people, even, and sadly, especially in our life with God.

Our addictive culture can’t keep from looking at others to determine how much, how deeply, how consistently, we should love, worship, serve, or sacrifice for, God. This mimicry deeply impacts how we live our life with God. We adopt Christian lingo, worship in ways that are really pretty silly. Then we praise successful, best-selling writers who are idiots and congratulate ourselves that we become, through an embarrassing act of self-doubt and false faith, like other people who are popular, famous, or influential. Stop it!

Instead, look to God. Don’t measure your godliness by what others do. Don’t congratulate yourself that you are just like others whom you admire. The bar is set far too low. You praise yourself much too easily. Godliness is not mimicking other people, it is being like Christ.

Doing what others do is a form of selfishness. You protect yourself by making easy choices, walking in line, saying what others say, becoming like THEM. It betrays the truth, and it substitutes any authentic life with God for follow-the-leader. It exposes an alarming lack of creativity and insight. Doing what others do is the road to judgment not glory.

Don’t look to others. Look to God. And in that perspective, and apart from what any other human being does or says, make your decisions and live your life for God completely.