I got an invitation to attend an honest to goodness Hollywood premier.

It was a once in a lifetime experience that I would have passed on as the trek from Hawaii to Los Angles to go to a movie is a bit much and frankly, I am not that impressed by celebrities to get all that fired up about it.

But since I have a daughter who is a freshman majoring in film and had some extra miles, I thought I would suit up and mingle with the elite so that she would be encouraged to purse her craft.

Maybe suit up is not the right word.

I don’t own a suit or a tie. I did have some new black jeans and a nice Aloha shirt, which I thought would be appropriate attire since it was the premier of a surf movie,  Soul Surfer, which was based on the book that I helped write for my long time friends, the Hamilton family. (And no, I am not getting anything for this effort other than bragging rights.)

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I mentioned in a previous blog about the pursuit of fame and fortune that drove me in my younger days.  In what I now refer to as “my rock and roll dream,” the long-term plan was to work as an engineer by day and a musician by night, writing and recording my material while getting exposure and experience in the local club scene.  It would only be a matter of time until I would record the killer demo, move down to LA, recruit some monster musicians, and launch my career.  From there, it would simply be a short limo trip to fame and fortune.

Of course, that didn’t happen, for a lot of reasons—talent, marketability, maturity, circumstance, and the Small Still Voice that invited me into a better way of life.

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It's no secret that in my younger days, I wanted to be a rock star.  It was simple, really.  I would compose cutting-edge but timeless music, with relevant but flippant lyrics, creative but mindless dance grooves, and inventive but totally catchy hooks.  And rock and roll babes would flock to me, asking for my autograph, tugging at my leather pants, undressing me with their eyes, but loving me for my mind.

Actually, I was never that naive.  But I was close.

You see, the greatest part of my naivete was not that I thought it was easy, nor that I thought I was good enough.  It was that I didn't realize how vain and fruitless the quest for fame is.

This striving toward celebrity is embedded in many of us artists, isn't it?  When we are brutally honest with ourselves—and some of us may not have the emotional quotient to understand ourselves with that degree of authenticity—we find that our drive can come from unhealthy places.  The  pride which bubbles beneath the surface of our public image; the inflated self-image that we are cooler, more talented, more deserving than we really are.  Or the poor self-image that drives us to posture and pretend, forever comparing ourselves with others and coming up short; the insecurities that drive us to succeed so that we might break the chains of our self-perceptions. Then there is the unstated and untrue belief that fame will somehow bring us happiness and love and acceptance.  Ultimately, the things that drive us to want celebrity may often be found in a complex web of lies such as these.

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Fame, popularity, achieving distinction, celebrity status, being renown, having notoriety, attaining a high social status, and even just being known “well” all come with a high price. All place the person high up in an unattainable position and such ascribed status’ can bring danger to both the individual and the people around that person. When we place too much value on the “beyond humanness” of a person, we have taken that person from just being “like us” to something “other” and have, in effect, created an alien being which can quickly become unrecognizable to mortal humans. Fame tends to produce superiority and a “better than” ethos within the individual. Moreover, fame can make a person feel untouchable, indestructible, invincible, immortal, and above the law—what is worse is when society has reinforced those mantras. Now, couple all that with money and power and you have a recipe for calamity rooted in pride, maintaining social status, and continuing the ascribed power for that person. Is this what did Tiger in? Let us ponder that a bit more.

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Woe to those who crave fame: Do we possess the strength to be nothing?  (continued)

It's a challenging day for those with God-given dreams and strengths. 

On the one hand we're encouraged to package our giftings in neon and market ourselves, to knock on doors and make our own way...

On the other hand we open our Bibles and hear wisdom from the ancients, "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips." (proverbs 27.2)

Passivity seems a poor steward. Self-promotion a saboteur of souls.

John the Baptist shows us a way.

He submitted to hiddenness for decades, and when the time came for him to step into public service, he emerged from hiddenness with the strength to fuse authoritative visibility with Jesus-centric humility. 

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(For an introduction to these thoughts, please view my blog from April 30th)

 Woe to those who crave fame: Do we possess the strength to be nothing?

Woe to us when...

...we daydream of greatness and call it being visionary.

...we long to be publicly affirmed in the superlative and call it God-confidence.

...we boast of opportunities and call it faith.

May we speak honestly about the spiritualization of ambition in the church?

Over fifteen years ago, I was slowly soaking in Christ's passion station by station in a desert prayer garden. Misunderstood, misrepresented, betrayed, beaten, rejected, mocked, ultimately murdered...in each moment of pain Jesus could have stopped the suffering with one word: "enough." But instead, Jesus assumed a posture of holy weakness.

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