Much of my summer was spent travelling.
We saw so much beauty that we were almost ‘beautied out’ by the time we came home. After endless days of beautiful mountains, lakes and sea we ended up in Los Angeles where we opted for a VIP tour of the city. We thought we were the VIP’s in our posh black coach, but our tour was to see the places where the VIPs lived and walk the street of the stars.
Holywood VIPs
The commentator was keen to tell us who lived where and how much they were worth. We were even shown the house where Iron Manwas filmed. I thought it was demolished, but it’s still standing. Among all the ‘doggie rest areas’ (yes, really!) and the ‘Anti Ageing Clinics’, there is a hotel with a half size statue of Marilyn Monroe. The statue commemorates the fact that this was the hotel where Marilyn was found dead at the age of 36. As we passed showrooms that sold expensive cars and shops that sold expensive clothes and houses that cost millions, we came to an area where we were told that the elderly stars lived and occasionally get together. They are no longer needed for starring roles.
As we travelled around this image-laden place I reflected that this is the world that is sold to our teenagers. The world of the celebrity (a relatively new phenomenon) is projected at our young people by the airbrushed images that Hollywood creates. I recently found a website where glamour pictures were posted alongside pictures where there was no cover up of reality. Some people pictured there you would not recognise in the street. I guess many of us watch the X- Factorwhere people dream the dream. There are surely more people who end up in tears than signing a record contract.
How God sees us
This perfect image idea is something that many young people are tempted by. They need to be convinced that it is a pseudo-world and doesn’t last. I saw a rather sad t-shirt in LA which said: ‘She may be gorgeous now but one day she’ll die’. At the heart of this is a need for us to help young people see and hear how God sees them. He created them — they are indeed his loving workmanship and are accepted as forgiven sinners as they confess Christ as Lord. And that does not end up on a luxury hotel room floor, it ends up in a glorious home in glory.
Surprise
It also suggests to me that we need to teach our young people to pursue what is right and good and wholesome. By all means watch good movies, but be aware that the people who make them are projecting an image, not reality. Right in the middle of the stars’ names in the pavement there was one surprising name —Billy Graham. He is neither a film star nor a music icon, but he is, in Hollywood’s eyes, a star. Perhaps he’s there because, in this world of image, there was one man who spoke of eternal truths. Let us, in this celebrity-ridden age, speak of the reality of Jesus and his transforming power.
