Restoration: Deluxe Bible PlanMfano

Day 16: Rich and Famous

“Yeah, Aye

Coast to coast

Now these people know my name

Hit new lows

The higher you go the more empty space

Fill the holes

With drugs tryin to medicate the pain

This a cold world

So I went and iced out my chain

Aye

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Up so high

We just livin dangerous

Everybody wanna be Rich and Famous 

Seem like the love gone 

When you nameless”

Fame is a drug and trying to be rich is a trap. It might sound harsh, but an honest look at our culture will show it to be true. In the past couple of years, we’ve seen a number of our youngest celebrities dying tragically from drug overdoses. There’s been an opioid crisis hitting well-to-do families across America, and despite all the ways the internet and social media seem to be connecting us, a lot of us are secretly suffering in silence as we battle loneliness and depression. 

I’ve been there. What makes all this worse, is our media is not helping. The messages we receive tell us we should buy more goods and strive for more public notoriety to quiet the voices eating away at us internally. We find ourselves on an endless loop trying to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t know. When we realize how pointless it can all be, we’re tempted to even more despair and we become vulnerable to toxic shame. The music in Restoration shows a lot of my own struggle with the vicious cycle of chasing fulfillment through money and fame.  

As heavy as it all may seem, if we let God speak our media doesn’t have to have the last word. The Bible describes living for riches as a waste of time, a chasing after wind, and even a pathway to losing our soul. What’s more, Scripture even speaks to what motivates us toward this path: envy and a lack of contentment. 

If there is no God, then we are all left to find our place in the race for fame and riches. If there is no true source of joy, then we are left to our own devices loving things and using people. This is not the case. There is more to life than living for the approval of others. Things will never satisfy. This song is a lament to the fact that chasing riches is empty. If you’ve been there, I hope these words help you embrace this sobering reality.

Prayer:  May God help us receive the true blessing of life which is not found in money or fame. May he open your eyes to see the real prize of deep and intimate relationship with himself.