I was recently reunited with someone who made it really big in Hollywood. When I originally met her, she was just getting started as a writer/editor for a very small company magazine and her tiny salary was pitiful. To her credit she worked hard and became a very successful screen writer and later producer of television shows. You would easily recognize the many successful long running television series that she has created and produced.
Although I’ve never watched any of them, I am aware of how popular they are, and that she’s reached the top of her profession. She has made some “serious” money and received numerous awards and accolades for her excellent skills and creativity.
When I first met her, (before she made it big), she and I talked extensively one day about how to improve her career, and I gave her a few ideas and words of encouragement. When we ran into each other recently, it was apparent that she barely remembered me; however when I mentioned her just getting started writing for that small magazine and the conversation we had while sitting around the pool that day, it all came back to her and she remembered.
As I looked at her, she got an almost sad look on her face and then she wistfully blurted out that her life had significantly changed since those early days and then her voice kind of trailed off and she stared at nothing in particular as she became lost in her thoughts. Her demeanor seemed to indicate that hers was not entirely a change for the better and I sensed that she longed to return to the simplicity, innocence, and normalcy of her life back then.
Candidly I liked her a lot more when she was not rich and famous and flying around in a private jet. When I first met her, she was very likable, sincere, humble, and had an almost childlike innocence and enthusiasm about her. She now seemed arrogant, brash, self-absorbed, and hard as a rock and dry as a bone.
I have no doubt that her transformation came from the years of fighting and clawing her way through the Hollywood hills. I’m told that the business that she is in is as cutthroat and backstabbing as it gets and only the strong survive. She seemed to fit right in.
Not long ago I got on a plane and took my seat and several minutes later a young lady made her “grand” appearance. She was the last person on board and her entry was a big dramatic production and everyone was watching her. I looked up from my newspaper and she held her arms out wide and looked me right in the eyes and exclaimed; “Well I guess you are the lucky one; you get ME!”
I smiled at her and said, “Bingo! Looks like I hit the jackpot all right”.
She then dramatically plopped down in the empty seat next to mine. She was dressed in what I suppose could be considered “high fashion”. I’m sure her outfit was designed by the “flamer” of the century and cost a lot of money, but honestly she looked like she came from another planet and I felt like asking her “to take me to her leader”. I wouldn’t have wanted one of my little granddaughters wearing that outfit to a “snake fight”.
It turns out she had just finished taping one of those television shows in Hollywood where she competed for several weeks with several other girls to become a high fashion model and had won the entire competition and was headed to New York to begin her career.
I discovered that lying just underneath her flamboyant attire and heavy makeup was a strikingly beautiful little girl. I was impressed with her charismatic, yet childlike and innocent personality and she seemed to be such a sweet little likable girl underneath all those trappings.
She seemed very disappointed that I hadn’t watched her competition on television or even heard of it. She frowned and gave me a pouted look and then quickly smiled and fumbled around in her purse and handed me a photograph of herself to remember her by before departing the plane. I wished her well and whispered a prayer for her in the hopes that she would survive the perilous days ahead.
Everything I’ve read indicates that the high fashion model industry is perhaps even tougher than the Hollywood hills scene. I hope this sweet little child of God does not harden like my other acquaintance after being exposed to it, and I hope she will not allow pride, that ancient sin of all sins, to destroy her.
Staying humble when enjoying tremendous success and being one of the “beautiful people” is not an easy feat. Too many superstars take themselves far too seriously.
As always we can look to Jesus. If anyone deserves our complete adulation and adoration it is Him. He is the King of Kings, and yet He chose to be born in a manger in a barn in humble circumstance. He did not tell everyone how much better he was than everyone else, or that He was rich and powerful beyond measure; He told us that He was gentle and humble and His message was simple. He told us that His “yoke is pleasant, and burden is light”.
He entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey instead of a chariot adorned with emeralds and gold. He washed the feet of His disciples instead of vice versa. Jesus said that whoever wanted to be first, must be last, and He exemplified the serving spirit that He wants us to emulate. He sacrificed His own life in order that we might have everlasting life and live with Him forever.
The Bible teaches that “pride goes before destruction”. When I catch myself beginning to swell up like a peacock for some little accomplishment, I try my utmost to remind myself that I should really be giving God the credit, I chastise myself and hark back to just how silly that line of thinking really is and how stupid I really am.
Bottom line: I am nothing and Jesus is everything. Without Him I have no hope.
My hope is in God and that he will deliver me, (all too often from myself)
Psalm 39:4
“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered—
how fleeting my life is.
You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
at best, each of us is but a breath.”
We are merely moving shadows,
and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
not knowing who will spend it.
And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?
My only hope is in you.
Rescue me from my rebellion.