Catching up on Culture

Last blog, I alluded to the fact that I was raised without TV. We still don't have a TV in our home; at least in the sense where we can actually watch channels. So, whenever I get the chance to really watch TV, I take advantage of it. It's my way of getting a crash course in culture. I got one such opportunity to catch up on culture during my recent trip to Indianapolis..., and I'm still in recovery.


In fact, I've been left speechless. In all likelihood, this will be a very short blog as a result. All I can say is that it's going to be a very long time before I get over the profligacy, the decadence, the violence, the indecency, the vulgarity, the vapidness, the profanity, and the irreverence of what I witnessed in my motel room. I came away sick at heart - grieved to my inmost being.


I have no harsh words, at this point for those in show business, but I wondered... still wonder... is there no one in the world of Hollywood, is there no one in the ranks of talk show personalities, is there no one in the dressing rooms of showbiz that is tired of the shallowness and petty dramas of celebrity squabbles? Is no one weary of the endless parade of corruption and degradation of morals that so cheapens the worth of humanity? Much of what I saw folks would say is mere show, but I am left to ponder how much the showmen/women have bought into the show?


Now, I know why the prophet Jeremiah once poetically and poignantly lamented, "Oh, that my eyes were rivers of water to weep for the wound ... of my people!" Oh, that I could weep for the emptiness of our culture! Or as the prophet Isaiah said, "Judgement is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter."


You see, above all else, what I witnessed was an absence of truth. Everybody is doing what is right in their own eyes - a sure recipe for disaster, and then we wonder why our world is so chaotic and wretched. It was no accident, that as I flipped wide-eyed through the channels, I saw hedonism on one hand and violence on the other. Just like a ship without a compass, without a rudder, we are drifting, and we are sure to make shipwreck on the shores of time. Whenever truth departs, tragedy fills the remaining void. It is a tried and true formula.


So, if you are reading this blog, and you find you have a heartache, and an inner emptiness that is not satisfied with typical Hollywood fare and the Beverly Hills lifestyle, if you find you are lost and drifting like a ship without a compass, I'm happy to proclaim to you that there is help, there is hope - there is a compass you can rely on to give direction to your life: His name is Jesus. He is the Way, the TRUTH, and the life. He is the Way for those who are lost, He is the Truth for those who are searching, and He is the Life for those who can't find satisfaction in a palatial house, all the toys, and mutiple relationships. He is what Hollywood... and the world... needs now more than ever.


'Til next time,
Pastor Chelle