“Life is an exercise in mindless conformity.”

The above statement is a quote from Hal Urban’s book The 10 Commandments of Common Sense. When you first read his statement what were your initial thoughts? Did it cause you to stop and ponder? Or perhaps, did you breeze right over it not paying much attention to it?

There is a phenomenon at work today that is very subtle and yet very effective in its sublimity. The phenomenon is popular culture. And the intent of popular culture is to numb and dumb us so that we become people who do not think for themselves. Everyday we are bombarded with advertisements and messages in an attempt to seduce us into becoming what popular culture says that we should become. It is a deliberate front in an attempt to get us to conform – to conform to the thoughts and attitudes of popular culture. As a result it is easy to get pulled into a system and way thinking without even knowing it. That is the power of this phenomenon. This numbing and dumbing down affects our ability to think on our own. In essence we are allowing someone else to think for us. We are allowing someone else to tell us what we should become and how to become it.

Romans 12:2 in the Message says, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God.”

The remedy to a life ship wrecked by popular culture is a life defined by God. Instead of getting pulled into what popular culture says and is doing – instead of being seduced into something far less than what God has intended for our lives we must make the decision to allow Christ to define our lives. In this place we can become all that Christ has destined for us to become. It is far from what popular culture says we can become -but why conform to the opinions of man when you can be formed into the image of Christ.

So…who are you paying more attention to?