I Want to Be Famous!

 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.

Acts 5:10

I overheard that not too long ago, Christian Sam Rader from The Sam and Nia YouTube series told people he wanted to be famous and he let people know he was going to be famous.  In the end, he became far more famous than he expected for allegedly faking a discovery of his wife's pregnancy, for getting kicked out of a vlogger's convention, and then for several payments he made to a website designed to help him find discreet adulterous affairs.  These events happened days apart from each other.  It was almost like God was allowing their lives to fall apart overnight.

A few years back, Richard and Mayumi Heene sought fame by staging a false report that their child was trapped in a large balloon somewhere over Colorado.  While the authorities were looking for the balloon, Richard had his kid hide in the garage.  Their plan to become famous and get into the news worked very well; except the kind of fame they were looking for was not the kind they got.  The Heenes will forever be known as bad people.

These are cases of people who wanted the good side of fame - the attention and the money - but got the nasty side of fame instead - the ridicule and hatred of the media and of the very people they wanted to win over for good.

Fame is a tricky beast to tame and for those who seek fame simply to be famous, there can be unseen consequences that can turn one's life into a place of hell.

I believe most of us want fame.  When I was younger, I wanted it badly.  I wanted to be recognized as someone special and to be looked up to.  Before I was Christian I was convinced I was going to be a rock star.  Shortly after I became a Christian I expected to become a famous Christian speaker, Christian musician, and prophet.  Fortunately I quickly outgrew the fantasies, but only life and experience helped me shake off the hunger to be well known.

When fame is the value most sought out, things can easily go wrong.  People do weird things to become famous or to hold on to fame, and those weird things can get them into a whole lot of trouble.

In Acts 4, Barnabas sold property and gave the money to the disciples for distribution to those who were in need.  As a result Barnabas immediately fit in with the top ranks of the new Christian community.  He became an instant Christian celebrity.  Seeing this, a man and his wife (Ananias and Sapphira) decided to do the same by selling a piece of their property and giving 1/2 the money to the disciples and secretly keep the rest for themselves.

When they gave the money to Peter and the disciples their plan backfired and God killed them as an example to the new community of believers.  This sounds terrible for us 21st Century Christians, but that is how things worked in the ancient times.

Ananias and Sapphira were looking for fame among a small community of Christians.  They wanted to hobnob with the Apostles who seemed to be bigger than life celebrities.  But their attempts were thwarted by destruction because they were only looking for fame and because they wanted fame so much, they resorted to dishonest methods to get to that fame.

How do we know they were looking for fame?  At the conclusion of their episode, the Bible says that no one else dared to join them, that is the disciples.  The people didn't dare attempt to join them because they got the message loud and clear from Ananias and Sapphira that the celebrity world of Christianity was off limits to anyone else.

Barnabas became a celebrity in the book of Acts and in his day not because he sought to become famous neither did he intend to join the circles of the disciples.  He became a celebrity as a result of what he did for a good cause without looking to become famous.

Ananias and Sapphira sought to join the disciple and take on the Christian celebrity aura by poorly copying what Barnabas did.

LESSON FOR TODAY

Most of us want to be famous.  However, to help avoid the nasty side of fame, be good at what you do and pursue to be good not for fame, but for the enjoyment of what you do. Work hard at it and stay honest, stay ethical, and make sure past mistakes are dealt with and cleaned up.  At the very least, be up front and honest about your past mistakes.  The celebrity life is filled with exposes.

Finally, realize that fame comes from skill, a lot of work, and most of all, a lot of luck.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.            

—Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)