STARS AND SERVANTS
It amazes me that great
ideas come out from friends who post their thoughts and feelings in the social
media platform. One said that after this COVID 19 crisis is over he vowed not idolize
anymore movie stars, celebrities, singers, actors and actresses, even
politicians, because he realized the real heroes in our society are the doctors,
nurses, medical professionals, social workers, scientists and health care
workers whose courage, dedication, and sacrifices are worth emulating.
This got me to thinking of
something I read a long time ago, and the memory clicked. I rummaged through my
books and there it was, Philip Yancey’s best seller.
Philip Yancey was a
successful journalist who became a Christian. In his book titled “Where Is God When It
Hurts” he has this remarkable observation:
“In my career as a
Journalist I have interviewed diverse people. Looking back I can roughly divide
them into two types: Stars and Servants. The Stars include sporting heroes,
film actors, music performers, famous authors, TV personalities and the like.
In my limited experience these ‘idols’ are as miserable group of people as I
have ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriage. Nearly all are hopelessly
dependent on psychotherapy. In a heavy irony these larger than life heroes seem
tormented by incurable doubt.
I have also spent time with
Servants. People like Dr. Paul Brand who worked for twenty years among the poorest
of the poor, leprosy patients in rural India. Or relief workers in Somalia,
Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh or other such repositories of human suffering. I
was prepared to honor and admire these servants, to hold them up as shining
examples. I was not however prepared to envy them.
But as I now reflect on the
two groups side by side, Stars and Servants, the servants clearly emerge the
favored ones. They work for low pay, long hours and no applause ‘wasting’ their
talents and skills among the poor and uneducated. But somehow in the process of
losing their lives, they have found them.”
This cuts right through the
heart of the matter. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “For whoever wants to save
their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25) This is only one of the great paradoxes of the
Christian faith.
The challenging statement is
this: as we “waste” our lives on other people, for the sake of Christ, we will find
life and all of its fullness.
We shall overcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment