Crushing on Jesus - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

One of the most amazing things about crushes is how it's better off if you don't get to know them at all. As long as someone remains sort of a mystery and out there in the beyond, you can idealize them. You can think all sorts of things. They can be all sorts of things for you. Maybe they've just been just attractive enough to catch your eye and maybe you learn a couple of things about them, their name, which immediately seems exotic to you, even if it's a name that 20 people you already know have. Just a couple of other details and you can start to fill in this imaginary person and their life and what it might be if the two of you could actually know each other. You know, of course, what happens when you get to know a person you have a crush on? It's the best and fastest way to cure the crush. Maybe it's not a romantic crush. It could be a professional crush, someone you've admired for a long time, someone whose accomplishments you've seen from afar, and you've thought to yourself, I want to be that kind of rockstar in my profession. I want to be like them. And that's where that old maxim comes in, Never meet your heroes. Not because your crush or your hero or the one you admire from afar is actually disappointing in their being. It's just that they're disappointing because they're actually people and not just your idea of what a person could be. You've built up the perfect complement to yourself, and then you're confronted with the reality of their humanity, and it can be crushing.