CELEBRITY
By Larry White
January 5, 2015
Like most of my kin, I have a propensity to become a fan of things and people, to become obsessed with a subject or a hobby or a person of interest, like idolizing a celebrity. The word Fan was originally a clipped form of fanatic. Usually these interests are paramount in my mind and I devote time and research and of course money to them for a while. Like recently pouring all my hard earned cash into Ham radios. Hams say, "It's not a hobby, it's an obsession." They're right. Eventually my interest will fade, especially so when I cannot get any of my friends or family to join in with me and I wonder why I was so intensely on the "bandwagon". Sometimes I realize that my interest is not for the good and it is actually a harmful influence for me, in the context of my spiritual growth. Like Paul the Apostle said, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient." It may be fun and exciting, but is it helping me toward my spiritual goal or hindering me? That is where faith preserves us - the consciousness of our spiritual nature and destiny. Where am I going? What is my objective - my goal? What is my context?
So to combat it I throw every Fan-based collectible away (not my expensive radios. I just turn them off.) and once empty of that influence, attempt to see the bigger picture of who I am and what I am doing here on the earth with clarity. I essentially step back from it for objectivity. When the object of my current obsession is more detached from me, I realize that I don't need to focus on it, like trying to possess all of it, or "own" it completely. Are you the fan of some Hero, or even some celebrity preacher?
1Cor. 3:21-23
Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours:
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things about to come – all are yours.
And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.The true objectivity is in the spiritual realm. Everyone and everything is mine, so I don't have to hold on so tight and claw and grab and wish I were someone else or someplace else, or that I owned every model of that gadget or to become attached to anything to the point of losing my way.
I am just as important, if not more so in this regard, than that on which I am focused. And in that, the observer and the observed become one and share the throne. The Fan and the Celebrity are on the same Red Carpet. But this can only work in the context of knowing that I am the finite creature standing before the infinite creator. And in that strength of clarity then to look upon the world. I suppose this is the remedy for idolatry. I am a son of God. I am the celebrity.
LW