F is for FAMOUS

Somehow the talk in class got around to McDonald's and I was pointing out to everybody that there are few places on earth that you can travel where people haven't heard of the fast food giant and of course the same applies to Coca Cola. They're famous just about everywhere. And I suppose there are a select band of human beings who have similar fame across the world, some for good reasons, others for the bad memories they create, people in my lifetime like the Queen of England, Nelson Mandela, the Pope, George Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Hitler, Winston Churchill, Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Gandhi, Gaddafi, Mao Tse-Tung, JF Kennedy, Archbishop Tutu, Khrushchev, Nasser, Sharon, Tony Blair, Pompidou, De Valera, Peron and even Ian Paisley. I'll leave you to decide the good and the bad!

And if you go beyond the confines of politics, there have been famous people in almost all walks of life. Names in sport such as Pele, Bjorn Borg, Lester Piggot, Muhammad Ali, Michael Schumacher, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz, Steve Redgrave, Barry Sheene, Harvey Smith, Tiger Woods, Gary Sobers and Jonah Lomu to mention only a few. Inventors like Edison, Baird, Davey, Benz, Gates, Biro and Dunlop, scientists including Pasteur, Fleming, Lister, Darwin, Einstein, Jenner and Curie. Ordinary people who have done extraordinary things, like Sir Edmund Hillary, Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Christopher Columbus, David Livingstone, Neil Armstrong and Ellen Macarthur. We have even animals that are famous such as Red Rum, Lassie, Clarence the cross-eyed lion, Chi Chi the Panda and lest we forget, Shergar.

Of course fame is not always universal and while the majority of Americans will never have heard of Ryan Giggs, Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard, I guess I would struggle to name any of the stars of baseball, basketball or American Football, yet they are household names in their own backyard. So while fame may follow you in your own locality it can be a strange phenomenon to discover that in different company you can be the least famous of all in the gathering. How humbling that must be. I've never been that close to anyone really famous though President Clinton's helicopter did fly over our house during his first visit to our province and I do recall on one visit to Boston, a good few years ago, waiting for a couple of hours to see him pass by in his armour plated limo as he left a local hotel and I'm not alone in having stood at the gates of Buckingham Palace hoping for a glimpse of the Queen or a lesser Royal, even though they were all probably on holiday in Scotland. And isn't that what often attracts us to go to concerts, just to see a famous person 'in the flesh' even though they will probably sound a lot better on the CD in the living room.

So why do so many people crave fame? Our televisions are now filled by ordinary people with a story to tell, a questionable talent to exhibit or some other characteristic, either natural or constructed, in the hope that they will become famous. We have X Factor, Dancing on Ice, Joseph, Sound of Music, Pop Idol, Big Brother, Wife Swap to name but a few of the more common and it seems that the more outrageous or less talented a person is, the greater chance they have of actually becoming a 'celebrity'. Why even the 'celebrities' whose crowns have faded and who are clearly not on anyone's A, B or C list aren't averse to one last effort at stardom in the variety of programmes such as Celebrity Big Brother and I'm a Celebrity - get me out of here. How necessary it seems that so many need to fill the void in their life with the adulation of others and the financial rewards that it appears to bring. Yet most of those who acquired fame through genuine exploits and talent, prefer to live in relative anonymity and rarely court publicity. And many others discover that fame brings with it a responsibility to the public who believe that such people, because they crave notoriety, do not have a right to privacy.

Jesus is famous throughout the world. That was always His intention when he uttered the command to his followers, saying 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' That same command is true today and because it is not His will that any should perish, then it is our job, as believers, to tell everyone about Him and His salvation. Many have suffered persecution, banishment and even death in their efforts to tell others and there are still many who have not heard of His name, while an increasing multitude of people have forgotten about Him. The great difference between Jesus and all the others whom I have mentioned is that unlike most famous people, He knows everybody who knows Him and He never forgets them. That's why He tells us 'I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.' That's one famous person you can talk to every day.