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Biblical Celebrity: the Hazard of Fame Based Thinking
by Cate Russell-Cole A year ago, if you had asked me what I will say to King David when I meet him face to face, I would have had trouble finding an answer. I expected to be really nervous! It's because he's so famous. He's a King and he's... well, he's David. I also have no idea what I am going to say to Jonathan, or Moses, or Esther, or Paul... and I kind of want to hide from the prophets, because I feel so inadequate beside them. Can you relate to that? My instinctive reaction prods me into assessing about how much the worldly values of celebrity culture have crept into how I perceive Biblical heroes. The sad answer is, the secular image of fame has influenced my thinking far too much. Celebrity fills a spiritual void in the secular world. It gives lost people aspirational role models, regardless of whether they are saints or sinners. Who doesn't want to be comfortably wealthy, good looking, healthy, happily married and successful? In moderation, I could take it. For that matter, as Christians, who doesn't want to be like David? Don't we want to slay giants, rule nations and live a spiritually successful life? Of course we do! I own kosher salt with David's name on it, and many secular and Christian movies and books have been written, using David as a symbol of success. God did promise David fame, but it has gotten way out of hand. [Ref. 2 Samuel 7:9] As with secular celebrities, we get caught up in all the glamour, excitement and intrigue of David's life, and we can easily, unconsciously make the fleshly mistake of treating him like a famous person, not like the servant of the Lord that he is. Fame has nasty connotations. We all know who Oprah Winfrey is, but as much as we may relate to her and want to be like her, we know that we cannot be her. That is the unconscious lesson we apply when we look at any celebrity. "If only we could... but we can't." David is of such a calibre that we look at him in awe. We see him as an impossible person to equal, let alone beat. This can stop us from trying to follow his lead in spiritual areas and that should never happen. David should motivate us to imitate him through prayer, praise, studying the Word, submission to God, obedience, fasting and adoring the Lord. That is the pivotal core of every area of David's success; he didn't win because he was brave and strong, it was because he daily practiced those things, thus the Lord was able to use him. Please stop there and read those last seven words again: "the Lord was able to use him." There is the real problem that Biblical celebrity causes: when we look at David and all he achieved, we stop looking at the simplest of facts: that GOD did it THROUGH David. As David submitted to God he became God's channel and all the success he had, really was God's... and David readily, publicly, often admitted that. (See The Anti-King: David and Humility link below.) But our culture teaches us to look at the man and not the boring, routine factors that shaped him, so we lose this humble perspective. Ephesians 1:19-21 proves we can be like David: "I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead..." God's power worked through David as it worked through Jesus and Paul and now, all of us. Think of how much more we could grow if we caught hold of that truth and stopped looking at the people in our Bible as elite celebrities that we cannot be like. We must focus on how they allowed God to work through them, as we CAN copy that successfully. If we imitate David's spiritual habits, God can carry out His perfect Will through us, which is our ultimate goal. We need a God fixation, not a hero-seeking one. (Please also read The Habits That Built King David's Faith, the link is below.) David was a humble man. He would never want to be seen as a celebrity, as he delighted in placing his focus on the Lord. For our thinking to be swept away by the glory and glamour of kingship and success, is to to negate every precept that the Psalms teach us. David's words through the Psalms always push us in the direction of the Lord as the answer, we need to go in that direction and stop being distracted by wanting to be a giant slayer, or a king ourselves. It makes me sad when I hear Christians say how much they want to rule and reign with Christ, over and above them telling me how much they love to pray or hear God's voice. We're aching for fame and big, visible success: the things that are most likely destroy us; and in wanting them, we ignore building our character and making ourselves usable by the Lord. We need a reality check that pulls these worldly standards out of our heads! You have heard it before, Romans 12:2 "Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (New Living Translation) Anything the Lord does in your life won't look like it did in David's and it shouldn't. God's love for you is so great, He will give you what is going to fit, bless and build you and the people around you. You don't need to battle Philistines, when you can conquer your own fears and hurts. You don't need to liberate a nation, when you can bless people around you and move them towards Jesus. We're not judged on not being like David, we're judged on whether or not we did what the Lord asked US to do. So let's get our heads out of the bright lights and go about our work with our eyes fixed on Jesus. It's exactly what David would also advise you to do. "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him..." Psalm 37:3-7a ADDITIONAL RESOURCES - The Habits That Built King David's Faith http://articles.faithwriters.com/reprint-article-details.php?article=33033 - The Anti-King: David and Humility http://articles.faithwriters.com/reprint-article-details.php?article=33025 - How to Kill Giants: Searching for the Deep Secrets Behind King David's Success http://articles.faithwriters.com/reprint-article-details.php?article=33547 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For more information on King David, please have a meander through the King David Project Facebook page, our web site and our blog, "Masada Rain." The blog houses many useful resources on studying, David plus bits and pieces of information which don't neatly fit into article form. Please ignore dates and use the search feature to find what you want. The web site has resources on David's family tree, life and the Psalms. All content is creative commons and non-profit. Sharing of the project's work would be deeply appreciated. Masada Rain Blog: https://masadarain.wordpress.com The project web site: http://cateartios.wix.com/kingdavidproject Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fromdespairtodeliverance Twitter: @Masada_Rain "From Despair to Deliverance: the King David Project," is a non-profit ministry, that seeks to make the life of King David easy to understand and relevant, so that believers gain inspiration and comfort from the life of King David. The project is run by Cate Russell-Cole, a Christian writer from Brisbane, Australia. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This article by Cate Russell-Cole is under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) Written in Australian English. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |