I don’t know where it started. My guess is within the “Restless and Reformed” community. I’m pretty sure that’s where I first heard it and continue to.
It sounds sexy doesn’t it?!
The phrase came about in a time when America and possibly much of the world became obsessed with fame.
Yeah we had always liked and admired our movie stars, but something happened in 2000’s that made us go crazy about fame. Maybe it was reality TV and the fact that regular people could be famous while possessing no talents that a reasonable person would consider entertaining, or maybe it was the advent of Youtube and viral videos enabling someone to become famous without even being on TV at all. A culmination of these things made people willing to get married on TV to a perfect stranger, or have the first year of marriage filmed for the world to see, it made Paris Hilton one of the most famous people in the world all because she… well I honestly don’t know what she does exactly.
I have no doubt that many people repeating this slogan are well-meaning and even hold in their hearts something good and right when they say it.
But I think it’s a mantra that begs for further examination.
Someone who follows a famous person is called a fan. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m a fan of more than a few people. But Jesus doesn’t need fans.
Maybe “making him famous,” isn’t something Jesus wants.
I’m sure that many are saying, ‘But Shane, doesn’t Jesus want to be known in people’s hearts?’ and to that I would say, of course he does, but who is first famous person that comes to your mind? Do you know them… in your heart? Do you know their deepest wants and needs, their dreams and fears? Of course not. You know of them, but you don’t know them.
Why on earth would we use the most superficial of words to describe the way in which Jesus wants to be known to the world?!
You might be thinking that this is splitting hairs, that it’s just semantics, but the truth is, words matter. Words matter greatly. They shape the way we think and behave. We can use them to convey God’s proper place in our hearts, or relegate him to the cover of an issue of Entertainment Weekly.
Lacy Finn Borgo writes for the spiritual formation of children and families because she has children and a family and she likes them both. She is currently the volunteer Director of the Renovare Children & Families Ministry. Her Bachelor’s Degree is from University of Texas, Permian Basin and her Master’s Degree in Education from the State University of New York, Geneseo. Lacy is a recent graduate of the Renovare Spiritual Formation Institute. She has taught in both public and private schools in Texas, New York, Colorado and Kazakhstan. Lacy has written books and curriculum for Houghton Mifflin and McGraw Hill. She has also written leveled readers for Reading A-Z.