Rock stars live with their whims always satified.
As much as anyone, a rock star lives at maximum volume. There is no such thing as "a little" with a rock star. They push the sliders to the max. They pump up the volume. They go all out. I think this is why we are so drawn to rock stars. They appear to be high on life. They possess all the attributes, all the charisma, all the connections, all the talent, and all the material things that could possibly make us happy. If rock stars want it, they get it. The masses cater to their every whim.
This week I found this website listing the outrageous accommodations rock stars have requested while on tour.
•Mariah Carey-- a puppy, kittens, tea service for eight, and a special attendant to dispose of her used chewing gum
•Paul McCartney-- nineteen 6 foot tall leafy plants and vegetarian catering with no meat byproducts used.
•Jennifer Lopez-- white flowers, white tablecloths, white curtains, white candles, white couches, low-watt lightbulbs, her coffee to be stirred counter-clockwise, and skittles.
•Rolling Stones-- a toilet on wheels. Rolling, rolling, rolling.
•Barbara Streisand-- rose petalsplaced in her toilet water.
•Nirvana-- macaroni and cheese.
•Prince-- a physician and food to be covered with plastic wrap.
•Marilyn Manson-- gummy bears, Doritos, microwave popcorn, and a bald companion with no teeth.
Source:The Little Red Rider's Book: The Backstage Requests Of Rock 'n' Roll's Most Famous Artists, published by Portico
You might say that rock stars are uniquely positioned to test the limits of pleasure. This is why we are so fascinated with "Behind the Music." What’s a rock star’s lifestyle like? What’s it like to walk inhis shoes? What’s it like to truly be alive?
Solomon was a rock star in his era.
In Solomon’s day people were asking, "What’s it like to be a king? What’s it like to be Solomon? What’s it like to have choice accommodations, the finest food, the finest wine, the finest women, personal servants to make your every wish become reality, power, untold wealth, success, world-wide fame, and world-renowned talent (wisdom)? Yet despiteall these things, Solomon was bored.
Consider how Eugene Peterson translates the opening verses of Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 in The Message translation of the Bible."Smoke, nothing but smoke. There’s nothing to anything— it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work,a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes— it’s business as usual for old planet earth."
"The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again— the same old round. The wind blows south, the wind blows north. Around and around and around it blows, blowing this way, then that— the whirling, erratic wind. All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea never fills up. The rivers keep blowing to the same old place, and then start all over and do it again."
"Everything’s boring, utterly boring— no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear. What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, 'Hey, this is new'? Don’t get excited— it’s the same old story. Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody’ll remember them either. Don’t count on being remembered."
A lot of people are bored these days.
Boredom describes the way a lot of people feel these days, and not just rock stars. Children have rooms full of toys, yet they're bored. Teenagers have cell phones, HDTVs in their bedrooms, iPODs, Wiis, high speed internet, designer clothes, and sports leagues— yet they're bored.
I remember one of the moments when I realized my oldest brother Chris was in serious trouble. As a high school student he would sit out in our family’s backyard and in a loud voice he droned on and on, "Boring… B O R I N G… boring… everything is boring."
It’s not just young people who are bored. Young adults are bored. Husbands are bored. Wives are bored. Seniors are bored. Ever notice that when you are dead inside,nothing from the outside revives the soul?
Bored people are terrifically vulnerable to sin because they begin looking for external stimuli to make them feel alive. But the eye never has enough seeing, and the ear never has enough hearing. Rose petals in a toilet don’t revive a dead soul. A puppy and kittens don’t revive a dead soul. Gummy bears don’t revive a dead soul. Nor can macaroni and cheese!
Are you afflicted with boredom?
So let’s just pause for a moment and deal with the reality of our own boredom. Do you have the courage to admit that you're afflicted with boredom? Think what valiant attempts you have been making lately to resuscitate your soul! Yet nothing seems to get your heart beating again. Your spiritual soul is in cardiac arrest. You thought that new position would remedy your boredom, that pay increase, that larger home, that newer vehicle, that big screen television, that new iPhone, orthose designer clothes.Yet here you still are, bored.
You thought being in a relationship would cure your boredom, having someone to love, to hold, to talk to. You thought getting married and having a child would cure your boredom.You thought fornication, losing your virginity, being promiscuous, committing adultery, and viewing pornography would cure your boredom,yet you are even more dead inside than when you first began, and in an even greater world of hurt.
So maybe you're one of those who's given up on curing your boredom. Maybe you're one of those who is just trying to escape or dull the pain. So you take those pain killers, you smoke your marijuana, you drink one beer, then three, then six. You do your cocaine.Or maybe none of the above. Instead you’re the shopaholic, the workaholic, or the busybody. You areperpetually trying to distract yourself from the emptiness you feel inside. You go out and eat, you watch the newest movies, you sit in front of the televsion or play video games, yet nothing fills the cavernous void within.
Again, when you’re dead inside, nothing in this world revives the soul. In Ecclesiastes 6:7 (NIV) Solomon says, "All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied." Do you hear frustration in his voice?
You don’t need a rock star to teach you that pleasure is little more than smoke and mirrors— that pleasure is little morethan rose petals sprinkled in a toilet. Pleasure never has been, nor will it ever be, the cure for a dead soul. This means you can keep pumping your body full of drugs, your eyes full of images, your ears full of laughter, your mouth full of food, and your hand full of sin, but you’re going to keep on being as dead as ever.
The key to life is not having greater pleasure.
Rock stars (and many of us) make a fatal assumption about life. Thatassumption is that the key to life is greater pleasure. Pleasure promises an adventure of excitement. It promises a change of scenery. It promises a revived soul. But what is pleasure’s actual track record?
In The Message translation of the Bible in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 Solomon says,"I said to myself, 'Let’s go for it— experiment with pleasure, have a good time!' But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.What do I think of the fun-filled life? Insane! Inane!My verdict on the pursuit of happiness? Who needs it? With the help of a bottle of wineand all the wisdom I could muster, I tried my level best to penetrate the absurdity of life. I wanted to get a handle on anything useful we mortals might do during the years we spend on this earth. I never said no to myself."
"Oh, I did great things: built houses, planted vineyards, designed gardens and parks and planted a variety of fruit trees in them,made pools of waterto irrigate the groves of trees. I bought slaves, male and female, who had children, giving me even more slaves; then I acquired large herds and flocks, larger than any before me in Jerusalem. I piled up silver and gold, loot from kings and kingdoms. I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song, and— most exquisite of all pleasures— voluptuous maidens for my bed."
"Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What’s more, I kept a clear head through it all. Everything I wanted I took— I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task— my reward to myself for a hard day’s work!Then I took a good look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing."
Now I in no way want to suggest that God is some sort of celestial spoilsport, or that he doesn’t want us to experience pleasure. It’s just that nothing can satisfy that part of us that God created for himself. Even Solomon, in all his frivolity, recognized that the key to lasting satisfaction is to start with God.
The key to satisfaction is to start with God.
In Ecclesiastes 3:9-14 (NIV) Solomon says, "What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil— this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him."
The key to satisfaction is to revere the God of life instead of revering the rock star’s lifestyle of pleasure. Pleasure shouldnever be a goal in itself.Satisfaction should never be a goal in itself.Rather, pleasure and satisfaction are the byproduct of a life lived in reverence to God. This is why Ecclesiastes 7:4 (NIV) says, "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure." The wise man setshis heart on living a right life before God. The fool sets his heart on pleasure itself.
So while you crave some new thing to quench your soul-hunger, know that you’ll never be satisfied apart from God. In Matthew 4:1-4 (NIV) we read how,"Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.' Jesus answered, 'It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "
We’d do well to reflect on these verses as we continue in worship. How does man live? Man does not live on bread alone. Man does not live by fulfilling his appetites alone. Man does not live on pleasure alone. But we become fully alive when we consume every word that comes from the mouth of God.