Lessons from Hollywood
It is yet another tragedy amongst the princes and princesses of Hollywood.
Why is it that the lives of so many stars, who seem to have it all, end up in tragedy? Could it be that because they have had all that the world has to offer right in front of them, they quickly realise that none of it can actually bring fulfilment and happiness?
The majority of us spend our lives chasing after things that the world offers in a pursuit to find fulfilment and happiness at a nice steady pace. It is harder for us to see the futility of what the world offers as easily as the stars of Hollywood, who have had everything flung upon them all at once and quickly realise that the world cannot bring them happiness.
The majority of us live regular lives with regular jobs with a nice holiday or two each year. In comparison, it seems like the rich and the famous are involved in the strangest things. We see the gossip magazines and newspapers discussing their latest bizarre escapades; their changes of religion; their weird personal hobbies and the fact that they seem to do everything to the extreme, whether it is becoming addicted to heroin or spending every second dedicated to charity works and mission.
Perhaps it is because unlike the majority of us, who spend our time working towards having a comfortable life, taking comfort in what we can, the rich and famous have already experienced all that the world has to offer, all the fine dining and luxuries, and realised that they do not bring happiness, therefore they desperately search for something else that will. They have tasted all the world can offer and realised that they haven't found anything that leaves them really satisfied. They do everything to the extreme in order to fill their lives with something, anything that can bring them contentment. Perhaps it is this desperation to discover something more that results in so many tragedies amongst the rich and famous of Hollywood.
The latest tragedy, Robin Williams, reminds us that nothing that the world has to offer lasts. Everything is temporary. Not only can we not take material things with us when we die, but also clearly, these things do not bring real happiness even during life.
The Bible tells us at 1 John 2:17 something that none can argue with: "The world is passing away, and everything in it...". Everything the world can offer us is temporary. We cannot take anything with us into death, but even during life, they are of no avail to us. Matthew 6:19 instructs us: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal..."
Hunger and thirst are very real to us, but also very temporary. We may be hungry before lunch, however after we have eaten, we are full and the hunger has gone. In the same way, the food that fills us is also temporary and by evening, we are ready to eat another large meal. This is because these things only bring temporary fulfilment. It is the same for everything that the world has to offer us; money, nice weather, nice possessions, nice hobbies. They taste sweet to us at first, but they soon become sickly and we are left feeling yet again, unfulfilled and searching. Revelation 10:9 states "Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but 'in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.'" We may get a new car which brings joy, but soon it becomes common and we look forward to the next one. We may move into a new house, but soon the house of our dreams begins to look a bit drab and we look for ways to improve it. Nothing that we can get can from this world can satisfy our desire to be fulfilled and content.
The rich and famous know this feeling all too well. Sadly, most of them never find the thing that can really fulfil them and their life ends in tragedy.
This world is temporary, as is everything in it. Even our own bodies are perishing. Therefore it is futile to attempt to fill ourselves with these things, because they soon pass away and we are left looking for the next fix.
Matthew 26:6 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?"
To ever be really fulfilled and have purpose in life, we need to base it upon something which is not passing away.
John 6:27 tells us "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."
The passage at Matthew 6:19 goes on to state: "19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Colossians 3:2 tells us to "set our minds on things above, not on things of the earth."
1 John 2:17, goes on to say: "the world is passing away and everything in it, but he who does the will of God abides forever."
To ever be truly fulfilled and left not wanting, we must put our hope in something that is eternal and unchanging.
Fulfilment comes through faith in God. Psalm 62:5 states "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him."
For He is the only thing that remains the same. He was the same in 1656 as he is in 2014, and He will be the same in 2096 (if we get that far) than He is today. Everything in the world changes day by day, but He remains the same. Hebrews 13:8 states "Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever."
Only through putting our trust in Him and what He has done for us on the cross can we ever truly be fulfilled. Of course we will still be subjected to the temporariness of this world, for we are part of it, but as it states in 2 Corinthians 4:16 "Though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day."
Matthew 6:21 states "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Build your treasure in the world, which is temporary, and your happiness too will be temporary. Put your faith and treasure in God through the Lord Jesus, who is eternal and everlasting, and your happiness too will be eternal and everlasting.
Learn from the stars of Hollywood. Not often are they the greatest role models, but in this instance they are. For we can see from the lives of those who have had everything, that none of it can bring true happiness, none of it can last, and it all ends in tragedy for those who put their faith in things of the world.
-BACChristian
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