Wresting with Fame

We find a passage in the 4th chapter of Ephesians that draws the contrast between the old person, who we used to be (who all too often we still think that we are), and the new person, our new identity
in Christ:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

We cannot save ourselves, that is why we need a Savior.  But, as Paul challenges the Galatians, we have to make sure that we are still not trying to live the Christian life according to our own power. We have to have a mind transformation; shifting our thinking to align with the principles of Scripture and who the Lord says that we are.  We are brand new, and we can choose daily to not be ensnared by the regrets of the past or the patterns that we developed outside of Christ, allowing Him to live through us.

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In 1st Peter 2, we can read some words that describe our identity in Christ, brought about in our hearts through His great love:
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

I don't think a whole lot about professional wrestling, but there was an interesting juxtaposition of documentaries that were available last night about two wrestlers who followed similar paths.  A colleague of mine made me aware of the movie, The Price of Fame, which was in theaters last night, featuring the story of the famous wrestler, The Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase.  And, on ESPN, a 30 for 30 documentary aired featuring the famous Nature Boy, Ric Flair.

There are some similarities in the men's lives, and you might say that the "price of fame" affected both of them.  A Bleacher Report story on the Flair documentary stated:

Flair's career, though, has not been solely defined by his successes. From his legal issues and his sexual affairs to nearly 20 years of heavy daily drinking, Flair has been riding a roller coaster of a career that makes him one of the most fascinating athletes in the world.

The review said:

As he put it, wrestling "became a disease." To combat his nagging loneliness, he took to drinking, making every day a dangerous proposition.

Flair's life could best be described as troubled, even after he left the ring.  The story states:

Even once his career had ended, the demons persisted. He was bogged down in debt and continued drinking. It only grew worse with the death of his son, Reid, until friends finally intervened to save him and his daughter Charlotte, now one of WWE's top female performers.

The death pushed them both to find themselves.

The story says, "...he paid the price for such an amazing rise to glory."

A chilling review at the SBNation.com website stated: "...after 90 minutes you get the point: Ric Flair was ready for his closeup, and after 90 sometimes hilarious minutes of looking at it, the face looking back after a lifetime of hard-lived wheelin’, dealin’, and kiss-stealin’ can be a terrifyingly empty one."  The life of Flair, in this reviewer's estimation, illustrates "the impermanence of humanity’s greatness, and...the hollowness of fame writ large on a single man rendered incapable of taking care of the ones he loves through ego-driven self-deletion and alcoholism."

Ted DiBiase learned about the price of fame, and it wasn't a pretty sight.  In an interview with FoxNews.com, he describes himself as "a minister," saying, "I travel all over the United States basically in evangelism, speaking in churches, speaking in prisons, speaking in rehab centers wherever I can basically sharing my story of redemption and the turnaround in my life.

He adds:

That’s why this film was titled “The Price of Fame." Now I want to be careful with saying the price of fame is whatever you make it. We all make individual decisions, but it’s like a lot of the things that come a long with being famous. You got to build accountability into your life or it’s very easy for it to take you down.

 When asked about what he hoped people would take away, DiBiase said:

The really important things in life, and I found out the hard way because I found all those things at the end of the day to be empty. Because if I don’t have a wife and a family who loves and respects me, if I don’t have their respect and if I’m not living my life in such a way that I’m being open and honest with them than what do I really have.

And, an interesting angle: DiBiase and Flair were contemporaries; they actually wrestled one another.

Last night, in a sense, their two stories were squaring off against each other.  I watched neither one, but I think the two stories can tell us a lot about two concepts: identity and regret.  And, also how you deal with the regrets you experience.

So, let's talk about who you are.  In professional wrestling, the stars have a certain persona.  And, DiBiase's persona, the "Million Dollar Man" was in conflict with his personal faith.  As the Fox story says:

When cameras stopped rolling and millions of viewers weren’t watching, the former football player was at war with himself. While his character personified “sex, drugs and professional wrestling,” DiBiase was a devoted family man of faith.

He decided to stop playing that role, retired from pro wrestling, and later went into the ministry. Flair also had a persona, the "Nature Boy," and as his ex-wife states in the ESPN documentary, according to the SBNation piece, after a near-fatal plane crash, "the persona of Ric Flair took over, and Richard Fleihr ceased to exist."

There are a couple of quick thoughts about identity:  for one thing, we have to make sure that we are not living a double life; that the person whom people see is inconsistent with our private lives - feigning devotion to Christ or the church while inwardly harboring rebellion against Him, determined to go our own way.  We must set our course toward wholehearted devotion to Him, living in the Spirit and not fulfilling our human desires.

We also recognize that our identity, as a born-again believer, is in Him.  We are weak in ourselves, but strong in Him.  We are sinners incapable of saving ourselves outside of Christ; but in Christ, we are redeemed saints who have the power to triumph over sin. 

That transitions nicely into a discussion of regret. We can become so full of regrets in our lives over what we have done and who we think we are, but God calls us to a deeper, fulfilling life in Him - a life that is determined not by past things we have done, but by what He has done to redeem our past. We can truly be apologetic for our past mistakes, but we can allow them to define us.  We can wallow in self-pity or drown in our regret.  Without Christ, there is not an effective way to offload those regrets that hold us captive.  But, through repentance and restoration, the Lord will give us the means to be set free through His power. We can make a change in Him, our lives can experience a different direction.