If There Is Anything Virtuous.....

I've never been big into the Christian rock or hip hop scene. Some of the offerings are pretty lame much like the LDS music scene. I tend to stick with my Michael Mclean, Lex de Azevedo, and Janice Kapp Perry. The Christian music scene also wears on me when a song uses the name of Deity so often that it loses it's sacredness. Sometimes the music itself overpowers the lyrics that any uplifting message is lost which I sometimes wonder if it is not intentionally done that way.

Recently though I was listening to the radio and came across a hip hop style song with a catchy chorus that just kept playing over and over in my head. I heard it some time later and was hooked. The song is by a Christian artist named tobyMac and is entitled: "Lose My Soul".

Basically the song is based on two scriptures from the new testament.
Matt. 16: 26
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

and

Mark 8: 36
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

The song talks about the enormous pressures that a pop culture figure undergoes (what we all often undergo) and the challenge not to lose his soul in the process. You can listen to it with the lyrics at Youtube:



It is tremendously difficult in the modern world to find success without losing the best part of ourselves in the process. This really came to mind today as I talked with a customer who was having some difficult times and how he had been advised by someone he knew that to be more successful he would have to become a jerk. Something both he and I disagreed with. My customer mentioned that it was better in his mind to be able to look the almighty in the eye at the end of this life with a clean conscience,

In watching the historic inauguration yesterday I was also reminded how easy it can be to gain the whole world, whether it be riches, fame, power, titles, or position, and lose one's soul. How easy it can be to compromise one's values and principles for a little worldly gain. Heck! Isn't that the exact definition of a hedge fund manager these days!?!

This can be especially challenging for the upcoming generation as they see so many in power and in stardom living worldly lives. They seem to be so happy. People almost (and in some cases actually do) worship them. Their pictures are on the cover of magazines and they have more wealth than most of us could spend in an entire lifetime.

But true happiness is only to be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The happiness that accompanies fame and fortune is often fleeting. Those caught up in the lights of the paparazzi often turn to drugs, alcohol, and risky behavior in a vain attempt to find some momentary happiness only to sink deeper and deeper into despair. How many of society's most popular have succumbed to early tragic deaths or become slaves to addiction. This is not freedom but bondage.

No amount of wordly success and popularity can gain us true and lasting happiness if we must give into sin to attain it. We will find that our soul will be lost and subject to the arrows of the adversary. If we hold true to the gospel we can attain success in this life and exaltation in the life to come.