A fragmented culture vs. a traditional one...How do we live, without God, when we have struggled so hard our entire lives to pick and choose what we think is the true and only way to live; have 'hand selected' our core values depending on which way the wind (and popular culture) blows and decided, for ourselves, what is right and wrong; what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, and then are faced with a disaster of a stunning magnitude that throws all that out the window.?  Where do we turn when the lights have gone out on Broadway, the red carpet has been rolled up, Wall Street is trading nothing but panic, the adoration of the stadium fans have been quieted...
Jeremiah 9 says there is something sick about how identity is formed.  Kierkegaard.
"The sickness unto death" Faith is when the self wants to be itself grounded transparently in God. Sin is trying to become a self without God and when you do that Your identity is like a king without a country or one who has subjects that can desert you at any moment. If you build your identity on any created thing, you have a radically unstable identity. If you try to get your applause, if you try to get your praise; your acclaim, that alcolade, that you're looking for, from any created thing your self image, your self regard, your self confidence is always hanging by a thread.  Always by a thread. Why?  You can never be satisfied. Your ego is never satisfied. Why do your feelings get hurt?  Outer applause never becomes permanent...it's never enough.  Every human heart is seeking a claim, a verdict, for a great performance. The problem is the performance is never over, the verdict is never in. 
There is a possibility of a 'cured identity.'  "Let him who boasts boast about this. That he understands and knows me."  God can give you that identity, filled with  that boldness, but it is not tied in anyway to your performance,  to your possessions, to your riches,  it's not tied to your anything. 
His should be the only opinion that matters...God knows you, understands you and wants you to know Him personally.  Kindness, justice and righteousness on earth through Him starting with you.
Thunderous wild praise from God.  The more you boast about Him, the more you applaud and acclaim Him for what He did for you, the more you boast about the cross, the freer you become. Then more love will you experience, then more love will you be able to share.