The Prophet and the Celebrity

It is said that a prophet has no honor in their hometown. I have seen this to be true consistently over time. Conversely, a celebrity is almost always honored in their hometown. Isn’t that interesting?

A prophet is scorned.
A celebrity is celebrated.

Why is this true? To answer that let’s look at what each of these people do to receive either slander or honor.

First, a prophet is a person who speaks deep truths to people in the form of warnings or instruction. That instruction is not typically valued because the truth can be too close for comfort or maybe the style of the presentation was direct and blunt. No matter what the issue, truth-tellers have the curse of the truth in their bones. They can’t help but speak, no matter how the listeners react.

Now let’s look at the celebrity. In every town there is some celebrity figure, either world-renowned or locally celebrated. My home town has some sports heroes, political figures and one mega-star to honor - Brad Pitt. I grew up with Brad’s first cousins. I remember constantly hearing about their “amazing” cousin who at the time was making B movies in Hollywood. I shrugged it off until now. Now I share that Brad Pitt and his family are from my home town. He is celebrated.

Why does this happen? Here is my simple conclusion. Celebrities do nothing but give us the chance to brag. We get to tie our name to their fame in hopes to become more important than we are. We all hope that maybe my knowing them or their family it will benefit us or at least bring some of that fame to our hometowns.

On the other hand, a prophet is a windbag - if we don’t value the truth they are speaking. Prophets can bring us down and make us feel as if we are not good enough, while a celebrity can make us feel like we have arrived.

Take Jesus for instance. His own people tried to throw him over a cliff. He left home. People celebrated him in other places. His people heard good things about him until he came back home. Instead of allowing them to celebrate him, Jesus gave them pure truth to help them internally. It is hard to march a man on your shoulders when he is pointing to your heart. “For he’s a jolly good fellow,” turned to, “a rope, a tree, to hang the Nazarene.”

Truth is hard to hear if your soul wants to be famous. However, Truth has a home in the person who knows they are a work in progress and that they have not fully arrived.

Here is to the prophets. Keep speaking the words of truth!

Posted on February 20, 2009 in Personal Growth