Star Light Star Bright

Is that you? You want your name to be a household word, centred on front of every newspaper? Maybe you want to rethink that.

Do you want to be the person mobbed, literally mobbed in public like some of our TV or movie personalities are? Do you want your family bombarded with paparazzi looking for the latest dirt? Do you want to live with twenty-four hour body guards?

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. (Matthew 2:10, NASB)

Don’t be a star if you can help it. That’s what Dickie Moore’s (TCM) co-stars on Sergeant York told him. Walter Brennan said that if the picture failed, they won’t say it was Walter Brennan’s fault. They say it is Gary Cooper’s fault because he is the star of the picture.

Cooper said the same thing in reverse. He felt the burden of being the star!’ If the picture failed, he was the one on the hook.

Every failure is always the fault of the lead person. If the company loses money, it is the fault of the CEO. If the party loses, the candidate gets it in the ear.

Am I saying be a failure; no, of course not. We should each use our talents in the best possible way. However, we would be wise to count the cost of success and decide ahead of time, just how much of it we want.

Maybe Milton Berle’s words will help you figure out your path.

“I’d rather be a ‘could-be’ if I cannot be an ‘are’
Because a ‘could-be’ is a ‘maybe’ who is reaching for a star.
I’d rather be a ‘has-been’ than a ‘might-have-been’ by far;
For a ‘might-have-been’ has never been, but a ‘has’ was once an ‘are

Prayer- Lord, we appreciate where you have us right this minute, starring in our own little world and not on the front pages. Amen.