Is Fame a Bad Thing?

The "older" people among us may immediately think of Irene Cara, but I'm speaking to a position of mass recognition, not the movie, musical, or song (we may all agree in those cases that Fame is, indeed, a bad thing). Fame can corrupt noble and even holy intentions. Being in a position of leadership or notoriety can corrupt; not particularly in church leadership, but in any job or effort. See Jan Owen's post a little while back, "What Would You Say?" about how some people apparently just expect a position of influence to be automatically corrupting -- I wasn't sure if I found it humorous or disturbing, but I couldn't keep from laughing.

There are lots of things that are noteworthy in the account of the queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. I noted in a post back in February that she saw his servants and household, and the way they presented themselves led her to praise God. This verse sticks out to me: "When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, which brought honor to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions." (1 Kings 10:1, NLT, emphasis mine) Solomon served God and saw to it that the things that he did brought honor to the name of the Lord.

I recently met a young lady who has a fantastic voice, and has finally decided that she's going to begin singing for revivals, concerts, and such. She held off doing this because she wanted to make sure her motives were correct. Now she's decided that the time is right to move forward. I think that's commendable!

I've struggled with the idea of writing something like a devotional book because I'm a little worried that I'll begin to be obsessed with trying to make it a "success," and that it might become an end rather than a means. (Of course, everyone knows that we really, really need another devotional book at Christian bookstores -- the selection is so sparse.)

I've learned, I think, that we shouldn't be afraid of recognition -- we shouldn't let fear prevent us from doing what God has prepared for us to do. Solomon did what he was called to do, he honored God (at the outset), and fame came along the way. The problematic issues come when we seek out the recognition and honor of others, or, upon receiving it, when we keep that notariety focused on ourselves instead of genuinely giving God all of the credit.

On a side note, I wonder if the person in the following passage would have looked back at the Scriptures after they'd been written and thought, "Hey, how come not more was written about me?" The NLT makes it sound particularly mundane: "Then Jehoahaz prayed for the Lord’s help, and the Lord heard his prayer, for he could see how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel. So the Lord provided someone to rescue the Israelites from the tyranny of the Arameans. Then Israel lived in safety again as they had in former days." (2 Kings 13:4-5, NLT, emphasis mine)

Just as God can use difficult circumstances to bring honor to Himself, He can, indeed, use people in positions of influence and fame to do the same. Have you ever backed out of something or decided not to move forward with something because of the fear of personal recognition?

"Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves." - 1 Peter 2:3 (NLT)

Posted in: Christianity, Fame