This past week we heard about the death of Whitney Houston, one of the most talented and most beautiful women who has ever lived. I thought she was a wonderful person in many ways. She absolutely had it all: talent, beauty, wealth and the adoration of the world. We still don’t know about what actually took her life, but we do know her life was very troubled. She could have had any man she wanted, and yet chose relationships that were dysfunctional and abusive. She could have existed on the highs of the audiences standing to their feet, and the heaping praise of the media, but chose to numb the pain of her life with drugs instead. She could have had anything she wanted, but she didn’t want anything she had. How is it possible to have everything and still be disappointed? How can someone with all the excitement of celebrity drift into boredom and loneliness?
You want to ask these people: “What is it that you feel is missing? How is it that a person can have everything and have nothing? How can a person have all the best of this world and yet want to end it all?” Jesus described it perfectly when he said: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:24-25).
If you do a Google search for “celebrity suicides”, you will be overwhelmed. The suicides, and deaths from drug overdoses, include names like: Kurt Cobain, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, John Belushi and Chris Farley , to mention just a few. That’s not including the long list of celebrities like Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan and Demi Moore who are in and out of rehab. Judy Garland, after one of her suicide attempts, said, “All I could see ahead was more confusion. I wanted to black out the future as well as the past. I wanted to hurt myself and everyone who had hurt me.”
I often think that the fame, wealth and beauty that so many are searching for is a curse rather than a blessing. What must it be like to do anything to get to the top and when you arrive realize there is nothing there. What must it be like to discover that instead of satisfying you it is terrifying you and destroying you. Talent, beauty, wealth, fame — what more could you ask for? Obviously, something else.
We have a whole culture that is drowning in addictions of all kinds, trying to avoid life while at the same time desperately seeking it. What they are seeking is a fantasy life where everything is wonderful and you feel good all the time, but that life does not exist. What they are seeking is a life where everything revolves around them, but that life is a selfish vortex that sucks everything down with it. What they are seeking is an escape from problems, and real life is found in the midst of our problems — facing problems and dealing with them.
When I saw the news about Whitney Houston, I thought of another singer — my friend Jodi. I was in a singing group with Jodi that ministered to drug addicts in New York City. Jodi’s voice was like a songbird, sweet and clear. But her life has not been easy. She has been plagued by serious illnesses for much of her life. Still, she maintains a grateful and joyful spirit. She can no longer sing, and her mobility is seriously limited, but her heart belongs to God and she focuses on others rather than herself. She spends her life ministering to others. She focuses on the goodness of God and on what she can do rather than what she cannot do.
When I think of beautiful people like Demi Moore who have it all, and yet find life so disappointing and need drugs in order to face the day, I think of a little nun from Albania who was as homely as a woman could be, and yet shined with a beauty that immediately attracted you to her. She shunned the accolades and attention of the world. She never experienced love and marriage. She did not seek out beautiful beach resorts, but lived in the slums of Calcutta. She served the most poverty-stricken people on earth who were plagued with the worst of diseases, and yet she would have described her life as extremely fulfilled. She walked through human suffering and squalor every day, and brought joy to all those around her. In a world of alienation and hate, she shined with the love of God. She didn’t pose naked, she clothed the naked. She died just a day or so after Princess Diana, and guess who got the most press. It brings to mind the Scripture that says, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (Matthew 19:30).
When I think of all those who are so disillusioned with life they want to end it, I think of someone like Joni Eareckson who is paralyzed from the shoulders down. After the accident that paralyzed her, she wanted to die, and actually begged people to end her misery. But slowly her attention began to shift from herself to others who had disabilities like her. She saw that God had uniquely placed her in a situation where she could understand and reach a whole group of people who were often ignored in this culture which worships beauty, health and power. As her heart filled with concern for others, her natural self-pity began to dissipate, and a whole world of opportunity and personal growth opened up for her. She recently wrote: “The core of God's plan is to rescue us from sin and self-centeredness. Suffering — especially the chronic kind — is God's choicest tool to accomplish this. It is a long process. But it means I can accept my paralysis as a chronic condition. When I broke my neck, it wasn't a jigsaw puzzle I had to solve fast, or a quick jolt to get me back on track. My paralyzing accident was the beginning of a lengthy process of becoming like Christ.”
Really, life is pretty simple. Jesus distilled all the teachings of the Bible and the secret to life into two commandments: Love God and love others. He said that all the laws of the Bible are fulfilled in those two commandments. Set your affections on something beside yourself. Set your affections on what is Transcendent. The Bible says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
Love God, love others. Those are the two great commandments. Our culture knows only one commandment: Love yourself. It is a terrible distortion of truth, because self-centeredness, self-aggrandizement and self-love only lead to self-destruction. All other addictions stem from the addiction to self. It is apparent from watching the miserable lives of many celebrities, and others who have spent a lifetime loving themselves, who end up despising themselves and life. We should have learned something in all this. Clearly, getting everything you want is not what you want. Clearly there are worse things than not being beautiful, wealthy and famous. Clearly, something else is needed. Be careful what you want — you may just get it.
Here is where the Christian message has such relevance and power. Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). When Jesus says that we have to lose our life before we find it, it means that we lose our concern about ourselves, our reputation, how much money we have, how many things we own, how we look, what advantages we have over others, etc. We lose the life of self-centeredness and begin to center on God — our relationship with him, his will for our lives, his future destiny for us. We rest in knowing who we are, in knowing we are his. We are at peace because our lives have meaning — even if our abilities, looks and finances become diminished. We accept what God has given us and know that he is not limited by our limitations. He can use our lives and love others through us. And so, as we begin to forget about ourselves, we begin to see how our lives can be used for others.
We have an entirely different set of values from the celebrity cult of our day. We believe the Scripture that says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). It is amazing how freeing that is.
It seems people will do anything for 5 minutes of fame. Reality TV continues to nauseate us with that truth. Everyone wants to be noticed. But Jesus did not exalt himself. The Bible says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. . .” (Philippians 2:5-7). Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Self esteem comes from humility, not pride, for God has said, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). We are actually seeking God’s esteem, not self-esteem.
What happens when you have great self-esteem and your evaluation of yourself is false? On “American Idol” we see scores of people who think of themselves as a wonderful singers, but can’t sing a lick. There are some people who see themselves as very attractive physically, but who are not. There are those who think of themselves as very intelligent, but who destroy their lives with their foolishness. What happens when you think you are a very good person, but you are actually a very bad person? The Bible says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2). And again, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).
How much better to say with Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). The Bible says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). The point is that the focus is off of yourself.
But fame and fortune do not ruin everyone. The likes of Tim Tebow and others have not cared how the world thought about them. They continue to share their faith even when the media makes fun of them and mocks them. They just strive to do their best and give glory to God. Those of you who follow sports know that Jeremy Lin, guard for the New York Knicks, has become an overnight sensation — to the point where it is being called “Linsanity”, and a host of other puns. The whole world, especially Asia, has watched as Lin has delivered his team several victories in a row. Jeremy is a Harvard grad who has set an NBA record for the Knicks with an unbelievable stretch of 109 points scored in his first four starts. Lin says in an interview that he has learned not to obsess about stats and championships. He says, “I’m not working hard and practicing day in and day out so that I can please other people. My audience is God... The right way to play is not for others and not for myself, but for God. I still don’t fully understand what that means; I struggle with these things every game, every day. I’m still learning to be selfless and submit myself to God and give up my game to Him.”
And there you have it. This is what it’s all about: Living life for an audience of One. Living life for God and leaving all the rest up to him. He has said, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord,’ plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’” (Jeremiah 29:11-13). Again, the Bible tells us what it is all about: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12). We see that truth in the headlines every day.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, in one of his great poems, wrote:
THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness...
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs-
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Life opens up to those who look upward rather than inward. Fulfillment comes to those who do not try to find life by filling it with things or the acceptance of the crowd. Life surprises, with joy, those who refuse to live as though the world revolves around them. Life flames out for those who live with eyes to see the hand of God in all of life — with ah! bright wings.
Rodney J. Buchanan
February 19, 2012
Amity United Methodist Church
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
