Avoiding the Herd Mentality
Welcome back for another LIFE Nuggett. There is a story that I love about some sheep in Turkey (about 1500 of them) that decided to follow one of their ilk off a cliff. 450 of the sheep died resulting in about 100,000 dollars in loss for the owner of the sheep. Now I feel bad for the guy who lost the sheep, but lets all be honest, the mental picture of all these sheep walking off the same cliff is kind of funny.
The point of today's entry is not to debate the intelligence of sheep. What I want to point out is that sometimes people are not that much different. When someone gets an idea or some new thing comes out, people tend to jump on an idea and beat it to death. Now there are times that it good. The light bulb, the wheel, fire, that stuff is cool. Things like that which make our lives better should be adopted in the fabric of our culture. What I am talking about is this idea of people adopting fads. It seems like lately as I watch our culture, we are always looking for the next great thing, the newest fad. I struggle with this. I am usually the last person to embrace some new fad. Usually, and this is probably some type of character flaw, if everyone is doing something, I want to do the opposite. I guess I can be a little anti establishment sometimes.
As I read the gospels, I do not see Jesus following the herd mentality. Jesus delt with people as individuals. I think that this is important to remember. We somtimes, in the midst of pursuing the newest fad, lost our individuality. We lose ourselves. Evan as the goal of the Christ centered life is to strive to become more like Jesus, there are still things about us that make us, well.....us. I don't want to lose my individuality, nor do I want LIFEhouse West to be a carbon copy of another church. I think that it why creativity is vital. It can help people express how God has worked in their lives. Christ can be the common factor in all of our lives and yet he still deals with us on an individual basis. He becomes personal. Yet another thing that I love about following Jesus.
The point of today's entry is not to debate the intelligence of sheep. What I want to point out is that sometimes people are not that much different. When someone gets an idea or some new thing comes out, people tend to jump on an idea and beat it to death. Now there are times that it good. The light bulb, the wheel, fire, that stuff is cool. Things like that which make our lives better should be adopted in the fabric of our culture. What I am talking about is this idea of people adopting fads. It seems like lately as I watch our culture, we are always looking for the next great thing, the newest fad. I struggle with this. I am usually the last person to embrace some new fad. Usually, and this is probably some type of character flaw, if everyone is doing something, I want to do the opposite. I guess I can be a little anti establishment sometimes.
As I read the gospels, I do not see Jesus following the herd mentality. Jesus delt with people as individuals. I think that this is important to remember. We somtimes, in the midst of pursuing the newest fad, lost our individuality. We lose ourselves. Evan as the goal of the Christ centered life is to strive to become more like Jesus, there are still things about us that make us, well.....us. I don't want to lose my individuality, nor do I want LIFEhouse West to be a carbon copy of another church. I think that it why creativity is vital. It can help people express how God has worked in their lives. Christ can be the common factor in all of our lives and yet he still deals with us on an individual basis. He becomes personal. Yet another thing that I love about following Jesus.
posted by PJ | 12:25 PM
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