Dear "Hollywood"

Dear “Hollywood”,

I trust this letter finds you doing well and knowing peace with the Creator you and I will one day face. I thought it would be appropriate to notify of your roll in my life. I fear that you have strayed beyond the scope of your expertise and giftedness.

Please note: I do not receive my political views from you. I know you are well traveled and have the admiration of people around the world, but you are not elected to lead or empowered to set policy on my behalf. A Political Science class in college doesn’t make your opinion right and mine wrong. I drive to the polling place the same way you do… just in a less expensive car.

Please note: I do not look to you for social guidance. Living in the home you live in and flying to an occasional third world nation with a camera crew does not make you the conscience of the nation. You have driven to the bank with money we have freely given you and I find it a little disingenuous to live the lifestyle you live, while asking me to sacrifice to your social project.

Please note: I do not consider your spiritual input as valuable. Too many of our kids are following your weak pluralism that has not calmed your soul or impacted your eternity in a positive way. Trust me on this, I know, a microphone and platform doesn’t make you an expert on God. Our souls are important and I’m afraid you have taken advantage of them and even disregarded them.

Please note: I do not look to you for marital example. Humans are not animals that can’t control their urges. The picture you have painted of marriage, with your occasional commitment, undermines the holy design of human relationships. We all have to answer for our own decisions, but you need to accept your role in glamorizing immorality and trivializing the weakening of the family and the institution of marriage. I do not have to embrace the moral compass you’re showing us, and I will not take the label of religious prude because of my convictions.

I’m sure it sounds strange to you, but I think the Bible is a much better guide in each of those areas (and all other areas) than you are.

I don’t want to sound unjustly harsh, but I thought I should remind you of a reality you may have forgotten. You are filling a very important role in my life – occasional selective entertainment.

Thank you for some laughter and a few tears. Thank you for some excitement and some really great stunts and acting. Thank you for helping me enter a world of where hero’s win and death is temporary. Thank you for an occasional escape from the pressures of life. But, don’t take your role too seriously and don’t over estimate your power over me, don’t assume that I want to be like you and don’t pretend you’re better than me because you’re thinner than me.

You are a form of entertainment and I hold your career in my hand – the remote.

Have a nice day,

Dave

Psalm 146

Psalm 146:1-10
"Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
I will praise the LORD all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. 

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—

the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets prisoners free,

 the LORD gives sight to the blind,

the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,

the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow,

but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD." 

 
The Psalms are full of truths that are timeless in application, as I read the words in my mind my spirit seems to be praying as if they were written the day before yesterday. 
 
Notice how the Psalmist started off with a testimony of his life purpose, " I will…."  It was an expression of Hebraic poetry to repeat the two "I will" lines with the second one building on the first.  
 
"I will praise… in fact I will do more than that - I will SING my praise."
 
The second "I will" line is more personal than the first.  It's not just "the LORD" that is the recipient of my praise it is "my God" – this is personal, and it is lifelong.
 
Then the choir leader goes from personal testimony to challenge.  No matter how well intentioned, smart, rich, powerful, respected or victorious, don't forget people are people and can't build an eternal kingdom. 

Then there is a list of nine things we should know about God.  As I looked them over and over I found an application in my mind for each one of them today.  Each descriptor can lead me to intercession.

"LORD, I know you set prisoners free.  I trust in your power to set free those friends of mine that are in bondage to the enemy."

"LORD, I know you can provide food to the hungry.  Right now there are people who are starving in Haiti in ways that go beyond poverty."

"LORD, I know you will, and do, reign forever - teach me how to combine joy with servanthood.

Find a few moments this weekend and meditate on Psalm 146 and see what the Lord leads you to pray.

 
Listening,
Pastor Dave