LIFE SHIFTS
Well, it has been a few days since I blogged…still making life transitions, and it is taking a while to come to some kind of equilibrium. Hopefully, that won’t last forever. Thanks for your patience…one of these days I will get this back on track regular.
Lots has been happening around the world. Tensions have risen with North Korea to dangerous levels…certainly a need for prayer there.
Incredible devastation and need due to the hurricanes, visible especially in Puerto Rico, but just as prevalent in other Carribbean locations and across the southern United States. Whenever I see such instant devastation, it always evokes several responses from me.
One is that it graphically shows in the material world what divorce often feels like in the emotional world…just devastating. The other response is that I am always grateful that in whatever struggles I experience in life, I have NOT had to go through the kind of suffering I see in Puerto Rico these day, nor even the extreme loss and upheaval many are experiencing still in Houston and other locations. Like many of you, I am sure, I also find myself wondering how I best could help make a difference in such a huge disaster.
In the midst of all the important news about things going on in the world, we have now been informed that Hugh Hefner died. And many people are acting as if that is some great tragedy. The real tragedy is that he apparently died without ever having repented from his life of debauchery and self-centeredness, and that means entering eternity without Christ.
People have talked about what he has contributed to society, and eulogized him as if he was a great and wonderful person. But stop and consider, what DID he contribute to society?
Well, he has helped create an unrealistic image of what women are supposed to look like that has left many women feeling insecure, inadequate, and unloved.
He has spent his life elevating the importance of the beauty of a woman’s body, which is generally something that is the result of DNA, but has completely ignored the true beauty that is the beauty within, which any woman can nurture.
He has exalted and glamorized immorality, undermining the commitment of marriage and created a false image of what love is. In addition, Hefner’s creation of an unrealistic image of a woman’s beauty has resulted in similarly unrealistic expectations by men.
He has also fostered the replacement of love with lust, living out that passion in his own life and his haven of debauchery. He has allowed himself to become an agent of Satan, providing temptation to sin for generations of men, and helping build an industry centered around that same temptation, which has wreaked devastation upon many marriages and in the lives of many men and women.
Hefner lived his narcissistic and hedonistic life for his own pleasure, and encouraged others to do the same. He has set himself up as a hero and role model for many males, resulting in broken marriages and unhappy men and women throughout the nation. He has deceived many a woman into believing that her physical beauty is what matters most, and that having a man’s attention to her body is the equivalent of having a man who loves her. While amassing millions, he has used those millions for the betterment of no one. He has joined the ranks of hedonists throughout the centuries, from the worship of Dionysius, Baal, Aphrodite and many more. And most of all, he reminds me of the man described in Mark 8, who amasses great wealth in a self-serving fashion, about whom is remarked, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
I am also reminded of King Jehoram described in 2 Chronicles 21, of whom it was said at his death that “he departed at no one’s regret.” I suspect that, if the Mr. Hefner could be seen at this time, he would be found to be like the man described in the parable in Luke 18, longing to warn people of the eternal danger they face if they follow in his footsteps.
The suffering of hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, Houston and Florida, that is news. The threat of nuclear war incited by North Korea and then further inflamed by responses of President Trump, that is news. Earthquakes in Mexico, wildfires out west, terrorist attacks in Europe, that is news. The death of Hugh Hefner, that isn’t news. It is the pathetic end of a pathetic man’s life and the end of his depraved influence in our society. We should pray that those who have been deceived by his warped set of values will come to their senses before it is too late for them and they, too, enter eternity oblivious to their Creator.
p.s. I encourage you to read a thought provoking op ed in the New York Times, pointed out to me by a friend. You can find it at https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/30/opinion/hugh-hefner.html?referer=https://t.co/KwpUVziB9H
