Crashed and Burned: Paramount Stint Over For The Top Gun

He's the guy with the baby face, the face which never seems to age. Regardless of what is being publicly stated, perhaps the real reason The Top Gun finally crashed and burned is found in his refusal to grow up.

I like Tom Cruise. On the screen, he is always fresh and young, oh so young. You just have to like a guy who always seems to be smiling. His demeanor seems to say that he always gets the utmost pleasure from life.

But does he? What is real pleasure? Can you find real joy in worldly pleasures? Does pledging your faithfulness to one person and then changing to another when the new wears off find you real purpose? Can you find it in fame and fortune? Can it be achieved in brief media notoriety that one achieves by making outlandish statements or by acting out in crazy ways? Is lasting pleasure to be had by becoming part of a religious group which is on the fringe at best and then making bizarre and outrageous claims in the name of that group. Scientology itself may yet ground this Top Gun. For a humorous view of the zany antics of Tom Cruise go to http://www.TomCruiseIsNuts.com.

What I am describing in the life of Tom Cruise is another kind of religion. It can be practiced wherever you are, in the limelight or out of it. It is called Hedonism. Hedonism is the deliberate and wanton pursuit of pleasure. It is not just a part of Tom Cruise's life, it is the way many of us have been taught to live today. We come to the place where we believe that life is all about us. We are the center axis upon which the universe rotates. Life is about my immediate pleasure. This is not a new philosophy. It has existed for thousands of years. It is practiced by the non-religious and it is practiced by the religious. There are Baptist Hedonists, Catholic Hedonists, Methodist Hedonists, Pentecostal Hedonists, Evangelical Hedonists and Hedonists in every place there is organized religion. Outside of religion, it exists within the lives of those who have determined to make any changes necessary in their society in order that they may make more money or have more pleasure in their life. Nothing else can explain the changes we have seen in America for the past 60 or 70 years. (I can't remember back further than that.)

Tom Cruise is an icon. He is us. He is the representative of the teeming millions searching for meaning and purpose and real happiness in life. We search diligently only to discover that what meaning, peace and joy, we thought we found is fleeting. We find ourselves as wise King Solomon who "became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun." Like Solomon we crash and burn because our search is for all the wrong things in all the wrong places.

What Solomon ultimately discovered is that it was not about him. It was and is about God. Solomon's conclusion must be the message our broken world ultimately hears: "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut--when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low-- they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets-- before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. (Ecc 12:1-7 ESV) Real allegiance to Jesus Christ, will make all the difference in our lives as we delight in Him and delight to bring Him glory.

In closing, I commend to all who will read them, 2 small books. The first is Cat and Dog Theology by Bob Sjogren and Gerald Robison. I have read it several times in the past couple of years. Every time I read it, it brings something new to my walk with the Lord. The second is a little book by John Piper entitled, The Dangerous Duty of Delight. While I may disagree with Dr. Piper about some of his nomenclature, this little book may change your mind about the entire purpose of your Christian life. Links to the web sites where you can get more information about these books are located on my web site at http://www.thegoodnewsmall.com.

We need to be on a course to reclaim America one person at a time. If just one more person finds real peace and real joy today, that is one who will not crash and burn.