A couple years ago, Leatha and I enjoyed spending an hour of our Monday nights watching a fun loving couple, Jon and Kate, raise their 8 children (twins and sextuplets). Last year, we slowly lost interest and stopped watching. We noticed that something was changing about this family.
Tonight we watched about 15 minutes of the show to find out that Jon and Kate were getting a divorce. Another American tragedy- for many reasons...
1. The recent explosion of communication mediums has been an incubator for narcissism and cult of personality.
But in our present age, the heroes worshiped are normal people, not dictators.
One of my mentors, David Churchill, who taught me how to watch movies, told me that the most prophetic movie of our time is the Truman Show. There is profound depth to the movie, but the basic story is people watching other people live.
Spending our time watching other people live...what have we become? What have I become? (After all, I was one of those 20 million viewers...)
2. The "me" generation knows nothing about faithfulness and sacrifice
Jon and Kate looked like they had turned into a couple of teenagers- Kate with her new immodest wardrobe, and Jon with his earrings and skull tshirt (which had replaced the Isaiah t) arguing over such pettiness.
Kate talked about how she feared they would be labeled as just another statistic. I think her real fear is that there will be consequences for their sin. There always is. And what is more... her kids will inherit the consequences of her unfaithfulness.
If you happen to be reading this and you have thought about divorce as an option for your current situation... send that thought back to hell. Don't say it or even think it.
"Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and men." Proverbs 3:3-4
3. "Better a little..."
We live in a culture of much. But wealth is such a trap.
At some point the show went from a nice way to document their children's upbringing to "We're going to Hawaii...moving into a ??? million dollar home...traveling the U.S. to autograph books..."
A mother of 8 on a book signing tour?
We look at people like that and are tempted to think, "They have it all and they are happy. Why can't I have that kind of life?"
If you're struggling with that, just watch the Madame Blueberry Veggie Tale DVD and remind yourself what great gain really is.
1 Timothy 6 and Proverbs 15 are well worth reflecting on.
4. To the singles out there...
If you're dreaming about a great marriage someday, here's some advice: Be faithful today. Be pure today. Love God in a way that He's all you want and need today.
In doing this, you will become a kind of person.
You'll become the kind of person that is faithful and walks on a path of righteousness.
You may have watched Jon and Kate and thought, "It can happen to anyone of us. Satan just snuck around the corner and zapped them. It could be me next."
Not really.
Over time they decided to let greed, fame, selfishness, pride, pleasure, and unfaithfulness turn their hearts from Matthew 6:33 "Seek first...".
Those sins were welcomed into their home one compromise at a time. At some sad point, those 32 year old teenagers I was watching tonight opened wide the door of destruction, becoming another American tragedy.
"God, reveal to me the ways in which I've allowed apathy, complacency, lukewarm faith, and languid service to creep into my soul. Release in me a longing for the unseen, where Christ is all in all. Guide me on a path of righteousness for Your name's sake, chasing me with goodness and mercy, leading me not into temptation. Give me a dangerous faith that involves sacrificial love-first for my wife and children, and then to those you put in my path. I am a sinner saved by grace. And in grace I will now stand. Amen."
4 comments:
All I can say is ditto. We were in the same boat watching them and laughing, and thinking what a crazy household and we thought ours was crazy, and are saddened by this outcome. Its a slow fade.
So true.
Good words.
You have so much time to judge people, do you even know them? How do you know Jon doesn't still wear his other shirts and why judge Kate and her clothes, they aren't awful or impure. Really until you know someone you shouldn't judge, it's not very Christ-like and you are turning people off from faith!
I don't believe he is setting judgment on Jon and Kate about their clothing choices. I think he is simply using it as an outward example of how they have changed over the past few years. It's not to say Jon doesn't wear his Isiah shirt anymore and Kate doesn't wear her yoga pants. That's not the point of the discussion, it's being able to see the changes in a person from the outward perspective. It's not being judgmental it's simply observing a change in someone that has been putting their life on parade for the whole world for the past 5 years. I believe he is using their clothing as an example of how they have let worldly things become more a part of their lives over the past few years and what may have lead to their downfall as a couple.
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