Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, do we ever leave high school? Now, this is prompted by an article I read in the Wall Street Journal recently about how smoking cigarettes is becoming cool again. And if you need evidence of that, you can look to two places. First, music. Pop stars like Addison Rae Lorde, Sabrina Carpenter are smoking cigarettes in public all the time, making it cool again, to take a few puffs. And then in movies. 2024, 50% of new movies featured a main character who smokes cigarettes on screen. That's up to 10% from the year before. Now, this has the CDC and public health officials all in up in an uproar, worried that smoking will become more prevalent, reminding people that smoking contributes to one out of every three cancer deaths in the United States. Gen zers, the young generation up and coming are smoking more than generations before them. In fact, the article cites a few Gen Zers they talked to as saying, hey, smoking is retro and. And cool. And so this is becoming a kind of societal concern. Are we headed back to the days of smoking? Well, let me just stop here and say this. I don't think smoking is the problem in this story. you know, I think we all know about the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes. And there's always gonna be a group of people that push past that. The same way there's always gonna be a group of people who push past concerns about alcohol or drugs or gambling or. The truth is, all of us have to do our own kind of calculus on what we're willing to put our bodies through and how many years or days or months we're willing to take off of our own lives. I don't think this is a story about smoking. You know what? I think it is a story about influence. Here's my question to you. Why are we so concerned about what pop stars are making or, what choices they're making in terms of what they do, what with their bodies or their habits? Why do we care if movie characters smoke? Why are we influenced by this? And you might say, well, I'm not. We're not. Yes, you are, and yes, I am. look, companies spend billions of dollars on advertising, and they wouldn't keep putting celebrities on TV to sell us things if they knew it didn't work. Social media influencers are everywhere telling us how to live our lives, what to Wear, what to eat, what not to eat, what not to wear. The truth is, we want to be cool. Deep in the hearts of each one of us, however we define that and whatever we look, we want to be liked. We want people to think well of us. And this is like high school. If the cool kids do it, then maybe I could be cool if I do it as well. The problem with that, other than it being a little immature and something we don't like to admit about ourselves, is it can be spiritually toxic. Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:2 when he says this. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Listen, as Christians, we have to remind ourselves that influencers, celebrities, personalities, they are reflective of a culture that is at odds with God. They are reflective of a culture that ultimately leads to death. So not only should we not make life choices based on what Addison Ray or our favorite movie star is doing, we should instead mourn the fact that these people are representing a culture that will ultimately result in decay. The truth is, we go looking for influence because what we want, we're worried we cannot produce for ourselves. We want to feel better about ourselves. We want joy, we want happiness. We want me, meaning we want purpose. We'll find it in a pop star because we think they have it. We'll find it in a movie star because if we were like them, we would have it. We'll find it in all kinds of leadership gurus and life hacking influencers. But where it's actually found is in the leadership of Jesus Christ, mediated to us through the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Scripture. Listen, as both adults and as those who are leading children, we have to continue to build a culture that takes its eyes off of the cool kids, quote unquote, and puts them on to Jesus. Because often what is mainstream, often what makes us feel superficially good about ourselves, is actually not good for us at all. The truth is, when culture is zigging, we should be zagging not just about cigarettes, but about all kinds of things. About modesty and morality and neighbor love and kindness. Influencers should have no sway over those who have found the ultimate source of healthy influence in Jesus Christ. So here's a question for you to think about today. Who is influencing you? Whose opinion matters? What trends are driving you? And are those things leading you towards God or away from Him? Today is the day of repentance and refocus, turning away from influencers that lead us away from God and letting Jesus Christ be our Lord, our Savior and the chief influencer of our lives. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!