Britney Spears is Everywhere!

I was in line at the grocery store last week, searching for a pack of eclipse gum when I came to this haunting realization: Britney Spears is everywhere. From one magazine, her dark-circled eyes stared back at me (with a look of utter confusion), while, from another “journal,” she showed off her not-nearly-covered-enough backside.
From her ill-timed dance routine at the MTV VMA’s to her inadvisable (and illegal) drive to 7-11 with her young son in her lap, she has mesmerized America with every tabloid-worthy misadventure. There’s no doubt about it: we can’t get enough of Brit. But why?

I think the answer lies in the recklessness with which she approaches life. Though none of us would desire the trouble that Britney brings on herself, it certainly makes for riveting entertainment. Incredulously, we're left saying: "Oops, she did it again!" Sadly, Ms. Spears personifies the ‘transgressor’ in Proverbs 15:13, whose life, the Teacher says, will invariably be fraught with heartache and difficulty.

In his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard echoes that sagacious sentiment: “To depart from righteousness,” he says, “is to choose a life of crushing burdens, failures and disappointments, a life caught in the toils of endless problems that are never resolved. Here is the source of that unending soap opera, that sometimes horror show known as normal human life.”

“The ‘cost of discipleship,’ though it may take all we have, is small when compared to the lot of those who don’t accept Christ’s invitation to be part of his company in The Way of life.”

Britney proves this rule beautifully. And yet tragically. She does her own thing—and then pays the price. She ignores counsel—and then spirals into depression. She dishonors God and is left to her own devices (see 1 Sam. 2:30).

The comfort, safety and power of Jesus’ Way she refuses to see, and so Britney’s troubles mount—and we can’t help but watch. (Perhaps we would be well-advised to talk a little more about the cost of non-discipleship as well as the cost of discipleship.)

Well, (I’m ashamed to say) I too find interest in Britney’s extraordinary misfortunes, on occasion, but as for me, I prefer the “easy yoke” of Jesus. Life becomes immeasurably more difficult when we live outside of God’s plan, doesn’t it?