I know you’ve seen them several times. You go through the check-out line at the store and there are all those celebrity magazines. Guess who’s dumping who! Guess who is having whose baby! Guess who is now getting married for the fourth time and who they are getting married to!
I had a friend in an IM this morning tell me something about Paris Hilton. They said they saw it only because it was on the news. I had to say I couldn’t care less. I have no interest in the world of Hollywood. I do enjoy some movies and I have some people I can like, but I don’t really care about what’s going on in their personal lives.
When Anna Nicole Smith was found dead, it really didn’t concern me. Yeah. I do get concerned about the spiritual implications but we spent a week or so in trial proceedings and that was all that we heard about. I don’t think we spent as much time when Mother Teresa passed away.
I am concerned mainly for a culture that lives vicariously through celebrities. I fear it means that we have been made utterly shallow. We have no lives of our own so often that we have to live vicariously through others. It is a phenomenon that J.P. Moreland refers to as our having empty selves.
Yet whose life is to be in us? It is to be the life of Christ! Now there’s someone to learn about! If only we spent as much time studying the Scriptures that have been handed down where every word is true instead of running off after every speculation of gossip that comes out of Hollywood.
If only we also realized that our lives are just as interesting as those in Hollywood. You may think you work a typical 9-5 job, but you are living out the life of Christ. You are effecting people around you, and you’d better hope you’re doing so in a good way. I ponder how it could be at the judgment if God shows us our lives and we see how much he was involved and we didn’t know it.
Let’s also remember something. The world of Hollywood doesn’t tend to embrace Christian values. I think we can get something out of it though. I think there’s much to learn about people chasing after happiness everywhere except in Jesus Christ. Maybe we should when we see these magazines, instead of brushing aside entirely, we could make a note to pray for them and those around them witnessing to them.
Go out though now and live your life. In the eyes of God, you are a celebrity after all.
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