People are NOT Awesome

I’ve seen some pretty cool things in my life. The sun setting in at least 7 different states in the course of one week, concerts, the ground from 20 feet in the air on a motorcycle, multiple oceans, and even a double rainbow. Needless to say I’m only 23 and have already seen some stuff that has made my jaw drop and heart race. All of these things have caused the same words to fumble out of my gaping mouth as I stood shocked by what my eyes saw, “awesome.”

I’m sure you can relate to something like that. Sometime when you were literally viewing something you couldn’t believe, then the word “awesome” came out of you mouth while your eyes were wide open so you wouldn’t miss a second of action. Dumbfounded, mute, shocked, immobile, in awe of what was happening.

The Internet now makes it so much easier to see stuff that you can hardly believe. People are Awesome 2012 is a video that shows some of the most ridiculous stunts, tricks and skill that I’ve ever seen. I can truly say that I’m shocked at the ability that some people possess in different arenas of life (even though one video is a known fake). It’s hard to believe that some of those things are even possible.

These people train, practice and prepare for years just to get a 15 second video of their success that we then get to see as a compilation of other people’s successes. After that we never see them again or even research why they did it.

One such person that always comes to mind when I think of stunts is Evel Knievel. Some of you might have no idea who I’m talking about, but when I was a kid I rode my bicycle imagining I wore an American flag jumpsuit while jumping a 2 foot ramp that represented the Grand Canyon. He used to be the king of daredevil stunts captured on video, decades ago. Now he is old news and has been replaced by BMX, base-jumping, Skydiving, and other X-treme sports. The fact that he has become overshadowed by new stunts is a perfect example of how people are awesome for a little while and then they get old.

The deeds of today are short-lived and replaced by the deeds of tomorrow. Awesome has become a term that is misused and too common. What is awesome today is boring tomorrow. Sadly that’s how we also look at the awesomeness of God.

Today we constantly want to be entertained and take little time to reflect on the things that are truly awesome. God is the only thing that deserves the title awesome, which means deserving reverence and praise. We’ve changed the meaning of awesome to characterize the lackluster spectacles of today. Instead of falling on our faces or being dumbfounded by God’s power we catch flies in our open mouths while praising the creation instead of the creator.

 

Matt Hull