Death Of Time

You know what the last "famous" deaths I remember are? Anna Nicole Smith. Heath Ledger. Michael Jackson. There was a big fuss over those. Now I hear that Patrick Swayze has died, over which more fuss will be made. Okay. So what? 100 people die every minute. Some of those people were made right with God through Jesus Christ and many were not. Whether you're name is Joe Famous or John Doe, it doesn't really matter.

But what makes these celebrity deaths so much more noteworthy than others that they should make the newspapers and the news programs?

I know the truthful answer: Nothing. Not one single thing. Yet the fact that it happens is a reflection of what our culture values, and that's sad if you really think about it.

Caring so much about *entertainers* reflects a culture where we've got way too much time and money on our hands, and we must be bored out of our minds. We need entertainment to relieve that boredom in a futile quest to find happiness in things that don't satisfy. I know this first hand. In my B.C. days I went through a number of obsessions that seemed to satisfy for a while, but in the end they always left me empty and hollow inside. There's nothing there. C.S. Lewis was right. We are far too easily pleased.

That's expected of the world, but Christians seem to get sucked into frivolous things too -- just as easily and obsessively in some cases! We need to pay very careful attention to what we let eat our time, otherwise we'll find we have a little less of it, then a little more, and more, and more. The phrase "if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy" applies here for certain. In this culture, its far too easy to find ourselves busy doing absolutely nothing -- and there is plenty of evidence to prove it.

The Bible tells us we should be "making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." (Eph 5:16) I don't think we take that to heart enough. We should.

Grace and Peace