When the Fame is Gone
I won't be going to a Lady Gaga concert soon, but no doubt heaps of people have been and will go in the future. To some, that headline-generating singer is just another cultural sideshow - a fad whose time is now, but like all fads, will eventually fade away, as her adoring public turn their attention to someone or something else. But at least for now, the entertainer known for her bizarre outfits and her wild performances is an A-list celebrity and a cultural icon.
And it's all too easy to forget she's a person - someone who has a story, someone who like many other celebrities has hidden hurts and fears, and the real question is 'how will she overcome those fears and hurts'? Remember the sad case of Whitney Houston who lost her battle with the demons in her life.
Well guess what? In a Vanity Fair magazine interview, Lady Gaga has begun to tell her story. And as you read that story, you will honestly feel sad. For all of her stratospheric success and being constantly in the spotlight, there's apparently a lot of hurt which is not how she presents herself to her adoring public.
In the interview she says, "If I'm supposed to end up like some crazy casualty, then that's my destiny...I love show business. I need it. It's what gives me life! When the spotlight goes off, I don't know quite what to do with myself." At least Lady Gaga was honest: When the 'spotlight' eventually goes off, when the adoring public are screaming for their new idol, there will be exposed a 'hollowness' inside.
While her concerts are currently a 'sell out', while the sales of her CDs reach record heights, she continues to feel valued, wanted and important. At the moment her popularity and position give her a sense of worth, a validation to keep going; they give her a feeling of accomplishment and recognition. But every spotlight eventually goes off and leaves you with whoever you were and whatever you had before there was a spotlight. In the interview, Lady Gaga went on to talk about what most celebrities find difficulties with - disappointing relationships. She said, "I have never felt truly cherished by a lover. I have an inability to know what happiness feels like with a man. It starts out good, and then they hate me. I had one man say to me, 'You will die alone in a house bigger than you know, with all your money and hit records, and you will die alone.'" That's brutal stuff. Of course, you don't have to have a big house, or big money, or a big name to know how empty a relationship can leave you feeling.
Many people, not only celebrities, turn to relationships to find the answer to their loneliness and dissatisfaction. Even if the relationships turns out to be good, it will never be good enough to fill the void in their life, to heal the hole in their heart. There is only one relationship which can do that. When we turn to John 4:13-14, we find the story of Jesus encountering a woman at a desert well. Her restless heart had never found rest in her serial relationships with men. Jesus told her that whoever kept trying to satisfy their thirst from human 'wells' (as He called them) would always be 'thirsty again'.
"But those who drink the water I give," He said, "will never be thirsty again." It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. It fills the void, heals the broken heart and gives sense, purpose and direction. What you cannot find at the top of the mountain, what you cannot find in the depths of a relationship, can be found in the love of Jesus Christ. Since the time of Adam and Eve, Jesus has been the sustaining fulfilment for all who have loved, followed and obeyed Him - the spring of Living Water, the Bread of life which alone can satisfy and bring meaning to life.
Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston and many others like them, are hoping to find the answer to life in popularity, the worship of their fans, money and the thrill of a screaming audience. But there are millions of others, who similarly want to find happiness in their work and relationships, to find the answer to life in various experimentations - the drug scene or the religious scene (such as Islam, New Age, Hindu etc religions).
Others believe that by shutting themselves to the truth and believing there is no 'god', that that will solve the mysteries of life. The problem here is that God has made us in such a way that we will have to keep assuring ourselves that there is no 'god' - have to read another Dawkin's book - or listen to another sceptic's lecture and so on. But it's all in vain. When life's spotlights go off, when we are faced with death, or have the news broken to us of a terminal illness, what will fill that pain, that hole, that uncertainty? Only Jesus can! Look how He has cherished and loved you by dying on the Cross and giving His life for you, that your sins - the very cause of your loneliness, pain and insecurity - can be forgiven.
Until we repent of our sins, until we commit ourselves to the only true God whose Son gave His life for us and then rose from the grave to give us eternal life, our hearts are, in the Bible's words, "like the tossing sea which cannot rest...there is no peace" (Isaiah 57:20-21). What you cannot find at the top of the mountain, what you cannot find in the depths of a relationship, can be found in the love of Jesus Christ. And if you have that living and dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ - if you have the assurance of eternal life, great!! - but go and share this 'Good News' with those who are still trying to find the answers in the things of the world. Grace and peace...