"I wanted more than mere fortune," a young Italian wrote in his diary. "I wanted fame. I wanted love. I wanted my name to ring around the world. I shall never go home until I can go home somebody." And he did go home somebodybut not where it counted the most.
Only 18 years of age this young Italian immigrated to America and changed his name. At first he worked as a gardener and cabaret dancer before heading to Hollywood. After years as a bit player, he hit it big in 1921 and went on to star in such films as THE SHEIK. Billed as the "World's Greatest Lover," this young Italian immigrant was hounded by women who tore his clothes and even followed him to bed. His film name, if you haven't already guessed, was Rudolph Valentino.
On a trip back to Italy in 1923, however, Rudolph Valentino learned he was still a nobody back home. "No one paid any attention to me," he wrote in his diary. "There were hundreds of Valentinos in Italy far more handsome than I can ever hope to be. In America, my type stands out somewhat . . . but in my own country I am simply one of many. Ten years from now I may be popular in Italy. But they don't know me now."
Valentino never had the homecoming of his dreams. Three years later, at 31, he was dead from peritonitis. But 50,000 women tried to attend his funeral, and mourners still visit his grave in Hollywood. (1)
What would you give to be famous like Rudolph Valentino? Evidently some people would trade everything they have to reach that kind of notoriety. Many people sell their souls to gain fame and glory. It's somewhat understandable. As some wit has said, "Glory may be fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
How would you like to have fame and glory? You don't need to apologize for craving such things. It may drive you to accomplish things you never would have accomplished otherwise. I can't help you with the fame part, but I can tell you this: YOU AND I ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE GLORY. Listen to the words of Jesus. He is praying his famous prayer for the church. Listen to what he says, "I have GIVEN THEM THE GLORY that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me . . ."
Jesus, referring to his followers, says, "I have given them the glory . . ." Well, do you have yours? You and I are followers of Jesus. Do you have the glory?
OBVIOUSLY, THE GLORY THAT JESUS WAS REFERRING TO WAS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THE WORLD CALLS GLORY. Most of us will never know the world's glory. We probably will never be featured on LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS. Perhaps some of us may make it if they have a show called LIFESTYLES OF THE "GETTING BY" AND INNOCUOUS. Otherwise, we will probably be left out.
Most of us are like Tony Campolo. Tony says that some years ago when his children were in their preteen years, he took them with him on a speaking engagement. When they drove into the parking lot adjoining the auditorium where, in just a few minutes, Tony was to speak, there were only three cars parked there.
"Dad!" exclaimed his son Bart, who at that point of his life was somewhat impressed with Tony's role as a public speaker, "Nobody's come to hear you! And you're so famous!"
"Come on, Bart," responded his sister Lisa, who, Tony says, has always been the realist in the family, "if Dad is so famous, where are all the people?"
"Knock it off, Lisa," Bart answered back. "It's pretty tough being famous when nobody knows who you are." (2)
That's where most of us are. "It's pretty tough being famous when nobody knows who you are." Jesus didn't promise that everybody would know our name. He just promised us glory. Evidently, what Jesus called glory was not what the world calls glory. And, maybe that's just as well.
Jib Fowles, a college professor and author, did a study of 100 stars from all fields Hollywood entertainers, sports stars, musicians. He discovered that celebrities are almost four times more likely to kill themselves than the average American. "It's . . . enormously stressful . . . ," Fowles says. "There is unrelenting pressure coupled with diminishing private lives. They have to be on every time they step out their front door." In fact, he found that the average age of death for celebrities, overall, was 58. The average for noncelebrities is 72. (3)
Is the world overlooking you? Maybe you are fortunate.
Terry Bradshaw, the former allstar quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, often spoke of what it was like being a hero one day and a heel the next day. On one day, the quarterback might be highly favored with the fans, the man of the hour. The next week, he could swiftly fall out of favor.
Bradshaw described the girl who ran the cash register at the parking garage where he kept his car. Sometimes she would greet him with a big smile and a cheery greeting. If the game had not gone well that week, however, or the Steelers had lost, she greeted him with a sneer.
Once Terry was pulling out of a local gas station when two teenagers stopped him and excitedly knocked on his car window. He rolled down the window, thinking that the two wanted his autograph. Without warning, they spit in his face!(4)
Is that the kind of glory you're seeking? What the world calls glory is not what Jesus called glory.
BIBLICALLY, GLORY IS A QUALITY ASCRIBED ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY TO GOD. Who can forget those magnificent passages in the Old Testament particularly the Psalms? Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge." Or Psalm 24: "Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." Or Psalm 26:8, "I love the house where you live, O Lord, the place where your glory dwells." (NIV) Most of the time when we read in the Bible about glory, it is ascribed to God.
GROUP magazine did a survey among junior high young people in youth groups across the U.S. They asked these young people to "describe the God you believe in." These Junior High kids said things like: "He'll always be there even when you don't think he is . . . He's not a man or woman he's a spirit, a light that's everlasting . . . Strong, powerful, loving, caring, forgiving, mysterious . . . The God who loves us no matter what we do the one, true God . . . Awesome. God is a 100% guarantee of a problemfree life." (Don't you wish!) Others said things like, "I believe in the God that sent his only Son to die on the cross . . . He loves all people even me . . . Kind, just, merciful, stern . . . Fun has a sense of humor . . . He wants me to obey him. (5)
Those Junior High young people have a pretty good grasp on who God is. Certainly God is all those things and more and all of these are wrapped up in God's glory.
Jesus, of course, shared in God's glory. In fact, in the prologue to John's Gospel we read, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. WE HAVE SEEN HIS GLORY, THE GLORY OF THE ONE AND ONLY, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (1:14) And after the wedding where Jesus turned the water to wine, John writes, "This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. HE THUS REVEALED HIS GLORY, and his disciples put their faith in him." (2:11)
Glory is ascribed to God. Then glory is ascribed to Christ. Why? Because as Paul writes, "God was in Christ . . ." But to us? We can have glory? Yes. How so?
This brings us to a second thing we need to see. The first is that glory is ascribed to God. THE SECOND IS THAT ANYPLACE GOD DWELLS THERE IS GLORY. God dwells in the heavens, so they shine with God's glory. God dwells in the temple, so the temple shines with God's glory. The Psalmist sings, "I love the house where you live, O Lord, the place where your glory dwells." And if God dwells within us, then our lives will shine with God's glory. St. Paul writes, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?"
When the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, our bodies house the living God. If God dwells in your life, then you have the glory. You see, the mistake we make is the assumption that glory comes from something we do that glory is something we accomplish. That may be true in terms of what the world calls glory. But what God calls glory is simply the opening of ourselves to God's indwelling presence.
Mahatma Gandhi was one of the world's great religious figures. Gandhi never formally became a Christian, but the imprint of Christ upon his life was unmistakable.
Gandhi gained such immense prestige throughout India that many regarded him as the incarnation of God. This "meaningless deification," as he called it, bothered him, but there was little he could do about it.
Generally, those who deified Gandhi were uneducated, but not always. One day the train Gandhi was on came to a sudden stop. A passenger had pulled the emergency cord when he saw a lawyer fall headfirst from the train. (Sounds like I'm about to tell a lawyer joke, doesn't it?) The lawyer quite remarkably stumbled to his feet, unhurt. It appeared to be an obvious case of good luck that he was not hurt, but the lawyer said no, it wasn't luck. He told Gandhi he had escaped injury because he was riding on the same train as the great Mahatma. Gandhi laughed and said, "Then you shouldn't have fallen out at all." (6) Mahatma Gandhi knew better than to be taken in by such idle superstitions. But Mahatma Gandhi knew something else. And that something else was revealed in a little story in the Smithsonian magazine.
Every January, the city of Delhi, India honors its president and government leaders with a ceremony called Beating Retreat. The centerpiece of the ceremony is an impressive marching display by the members of the military. The marching is highly stylized, and performed to the accompaniment of instruments, especially drums. However, everyone waits in eager anticipation for the finale of the Beating Retreat. Instead of a traditional Indian song, or a military tune, the finale of the Beating Retreat is a Christian hymn. In tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, the musicians play his favorite hymn, ABIDE WITH ME. Although most of the spectators, participants, and honorees in the ceremony are Hindu, Buddhist, or Sikh, the climax to the Beating Retreat is this sacred hymn, and it is played with respectful fervor. (7)
Gandhi knew that the glory did not belong with him, but with God. That is why he could sing, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide! When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me."
Glory is not something we can accomplish. It is a gift. All we can do is open our hearts to it. That is such a simple truth and yet maybe we need to emphasize it. The news media of late has carried stories that imply that churches today are not satisfying the spiritual hungers of modern seekers. So many people are seeking spiritual satisfaction in New Age gurus and various other mysticisms. How very sad. Do not be misled. Within the Christian faith is found everything you need to feed your hungry soul. There is a shining presence that can be yours simply by opening your heart to Christ.
Ruth Bell Graham tells about riding along a road with her children and noticing a bulge in the pavement. The road was new, and the pavement fresh and unbroken. What, she and the children wondered, had the strength to push its way up and through ten inches of road binding and asphalt? Each day the little mound rose noticeably, and the children were full of ideas.
"It's an oak tree," said one. "No. It's a locust," said another. "No, dummy, it's a walnut," said still another. "I know," Ruth heard little Bunny exclaim, "it's a morning glory and that's the glory coming up." (8)
My most fervent prayer is that you feel the glory of God swelling up in you this day. Glory is a quality ascribed in the Bible to God. But glory abides wherever God abides. How about you? Do you have the glory?
1. PARADE, May 22, 1994, p. 18.
2. Tony Campolo, EVERYTHING YOU'VE HEARD IS WRONG (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1992), pp. 164165.
3. Mary Loftus, "The Other Side of Fame," PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, May/June 1995, p. 74.
4. Dr. William P. Barker, TARBELL'S TEACHER'S GUIDE, (Elgin, Illinois: David C. Cook, 1994).
5. "Insight," Sept./Oct. 1996, p. 16.
6. Gerald Tomlinson, SPEAKER'S TREASURY OF POLITICAL STORIES, ANECDOTES, AND HUMOR (Englewood Cliff, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1990).
7. Simon Winchester, "The Legacy," August 1997, p.55.
8. Ruth Bell Graham, LEGACY OF A PACK RAT (Nashville: Oliver Nelson Publishers, 1989), p. 109.