Bad Romance

1 Surely God is good to Israel,
       to those who are pure in heart.

 2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
       I had nearly lost my foothold.

 3 For I envied the arrogant
       when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

 4 They have no struggles;
       their bodies are healthy and strong.

 5 They are free from the burdens common to man;
       they are not plagued by human ills.

 ²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God.
       I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
       I will tell of all your deeds.

Psalm 73:1-5

Today I watched some of Lady Gaga's videos for the first time.  I had heard some covers of her songs at youth event talent shows, but never heard any of her actual music.  After watching Bad Romance, which I found very artsy, I did some reading about her.  The song appeared on her second album, The Fame Mnster.  She was quoted in Rolling Stone as saying about the album while writing it, "I’m kind of obsessing over the decay of the celebrity and the way that fame is a monster in society!"

In looking for a verse for today, I opened up my concordance and looked up the word "lost".  It's how I've felt lately, and I wanted to see what the Bible had to say on the subject.  Other than lost coins and sheep, and prodigal sons, there was one psalm that used the word.  So I looked it up.  Verse two fit with how I was feeling, "But as for me, my feet had almost slipped".  As I read it in context, the verse was about losing faith because of seeing the prosperity of people who get things for nothing.  Verse four says, "They have no struggles".  This reminded me of the Lady Gaga quote.

It's so easy when we watch TV, listen to music, and go to movies, to be drawn in by the celebrity.  We see things that are better than what we have.  Entertainment entertains because it allows us to escape our lives.  We want our lives to have happy Hollywood endings because we want hope.  We like mushy romances because we want to be loved.  As a society we have a bad romance with celebrity.

Jesus shows us a better way.  He teaches us to love one another.  Psalm 73 speaks of how it's natural to envy, and concludes with where we should return - the side of our Lord.  We are sent out into the world to witness, and that means that we will be tempted by the world.  The key is to remember to come back to Jesus.  That's one of the reasons we have church every Sunday - to remind us of the gift of Grace God has given us.  It is greater than all the money and fame in the world.

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