YOU’RE SUCH A CUT UP. Cosmetic, or plastic, surgery, has become America’s new hobby. Last year, nearly 12 million procedures were performed. That is a 44% increase from the previous year.

What is the most popular procedure, you ask? I know you did. It was liposuction, of course. Sucking the fat out of the body for instant skinny is the new rage. It is much faster than the Atkins diet. There were over 478,000 liposuctions performed last year in the United States. That was followed by over 334,000 breast augmentation procedures. (It might sound more impressive to say approximately 668,000 breast augmentations.) Only a measly 145,000 or so facelifts were performed.

Women received 90% of all the cosmetic procedures performed. My guess is they received almost 100% of the breast augmentations. Plastic surgeries actually declined 11% for men. Men are scared of knives. (And not only when women hold them.)

Among non-surgical procedures, Botox procedures are performed twice as often as the next most popular procedures.

Overall, last year Americans spent $12.5 billion on cosmetic procedures. $7.7 billion was spent for surgery and $4.7 billion for non-surgical procedures. And they griped about the cost of the war in Iraq!

That old saying that youth is wasted on the young might no longer be true. Women stay young by plastic surgery. Men stay young by taking Viagra.

If you do not want to have surgery for yourself, you can watch it on television. There are several shows that feature real plastic surgery and at least one that fakes it. You can hardly watch television with your children at night for the Viagra and Cialis commercials. Have you heard the disclaimer at the end of the Cialis commercial? I do not think I can even repeat it here. Suffice it to say, the Little Woman gives me blood tests to make sure I am not taking it.

Why are Americans getting all this cosmetic surgery? They are trying to remake the old self. Although a huge percentage of Americans identify themselves as Christian, they have a secular view of life. The human body is theology in motion. As we age, the truth of the Bible becomes more and more apparent. The Bible says that sin brought death into the world. Death comes on gradually for most. The body ages its way toward it. Hair turns gray. Muscles lose their tone. Ears lose their ability to hear tone.

We do not want to acknowledge the most apparent fact of our existence, that our existence, in this form, is finite. The Christian acknowledges this fact and prepares for eternity. The secularist denies the fact as long as possible. Now he or she can change the appearance, if not the fact. Wrinkles are removed, breasts lifted, eyelids trimmed, tummies tucked, fat removed, lips puffed, and cheeks rounded. (Yes, both kinds.) It is a conspiracy between doctor and patient to ignore and cover up the obvious. It is the ultimate cover up.

Ultimately, it does not matter. Although you can cover it up, you cannot stop it. The body will continue to decline. Then it will die. No matter what surgery you had or pills you took.

Dr. Al Mohler says “The modern worldview suggest a message of secular salvation through self-improvement, self-denial, self-gratification, self-empowerment, and self-consciousness. The Bible reveals that salvation is all of grace, and made possible and actual by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who died as our substitute and the propitiation for our sin.”

Ironically, many who spent a fortune to renovate the outside will find the inside unacceptable to the One who matters.