All Eyes On Me

  Recently the social media site Facebook launched Facebook Live. Like other platforms, it offered users a chance to broadcast to the world events from their daily lives. Everyone could be famous. However, the fame that has been garnered has been more infamy than acclaim. Teens abusing a mentally challenged boy. Athletes recording private events. It seems in the desire for fame people will do terrible and foolish things

  It reminds me of an actor named John. John came from an acting family. His father was famous thespian, despite a drinking problem. His brothers both made a name for themselves on the stage, especially his older brother Edwin. John was obsessed with fame.  He told his sister, "Fame, fame, fame I must have fame!”

  John was able to make a career on the stage. His acting was mediocre but his good looks and physical presence kept him employed. But John longed for something more, he wanted to be known and remember as a hero, as someone great.

  John did become famous for something he did in a theater. One night he reportedly told the conductor of the Ford’s Theater orchestra “When I leave the stage for good, I will be the most talked about man in America”. And on that night he stepped not on the stage but into the balcony to perform the act which made John Wilkes Booth a name that would never be forgotten.  

  When John Wilkes Booth later wrote in his diary about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln said” “Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment.”  He lamented that he was not lauded for his action, “And yet I, for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew, am looked upon as a common cutthroat.”  In his mind, he was a great hero, not a murder.

  The reckless pursuit of fame and popularity can warp our actions and judgments. The desire to be what everyone is talking about can supersede our judgment on what is right and wrong.

for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. John 12:43

  It might not be broadcast for the entire world, but each of us faces the desire to want to be known. But what are we known for? Good or evil? Is our good turned into evil because of selfish ambition?  In James 3:16, we are told “ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole attention of the world, yet dishonors his himself before God?