You're Never Too Lame For Redemption

Hollywood has to be a tough place to survive. When your career is washed up you don’t often get a second chance. Some people get so labeled by their movies and roles that they are never able to survive under the shadow (think Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, or Jaleel White as Steve Urkel). Others have one big role and disappear forever. Still others have success but slowly fade from the lime light because brighter, younger, stars come onto the scene. Some people attempt to strike it big a second time but never quite achieve their success (poor Pauley Shore). But a few people have managed to make a return as of late, and I am not talking about Robert Downey Jr. or Alec Baldwin. No, instead I am interested in the humorous returns of people like Chuck Norris and more recently Betty White.

These two stars of yesteryear have seen their hayday pass. But the late cultish obssession with them has brought about a renewed, if bizarre, revival for their careers. Norris’ own return was in the form of jokes, t-shirts, and cameos in movies (even a series of Mountain Dew commercials). Most of these were strangely both admiring and poking fun at the star. Now Betty White is on the rebound, as a new cult-like obsession has formed around her. Facebook groups demand her apperance on SNL, which she gets, and now she is potentially in line to host the Oscars.

What does all this mean? For one it means that the mass of goofy people out there can actually influence pop culture and not just absorb it. But, for my purposes, it demonstrates that you are never too lame for redemption. Of course one doesn’t expect that to be true in Hollywood, but Christians know this is true.

We are all more than lame when it comes to Christ, and, if we’re honest, often Christians are still lame after Christ (in fact some of you are now thinking, this article and its author are pretty lame). But we know and believe that God has chosen the weak and simple things of this world to honor himself. I am not particularly partial to this fad of obsessing over goofy stars from the 80s, but it does illustrate an important belief I have: God offers us all a second chance in Jesus, even the most lame.