When I first began putting my thoughts together on fame, I labored to find a way to approach this secular subject from a spiritual perspective without sounding like a killjoy. Imagine my surprise then when I came across a talk on the subject from Elder Boyd K. Packer in which he stated he had struggled, really struggled, to express what he wanted to say about the same subject.
Elder Packer went on to state:
Beyond the fact Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that there has been a restoration of His gospel through prophets — after that, this is the one truth I most want to teach my children.
It is the misapprehension of most people that if you are good, really good, at what you do, you will eventually be both widely known and well compensated.
It is the understanding of almost everyone that success, to be complete, must include a generous portion of both fame and fortune as essential ingredients. The world seems to work on that premise. The premise is false! It is not true! The Lord taught otherwise.
That statement made in 1991 applies more than ever today.
My wife has a great affection for ‘80s classic rock. One of her favorite groups from the ‘80s is Journey, fronted by lead singer Steve Perry. Recently, Journey’s song Don’t Stop Believing, hit the number one position on the charts again in both America and England when it was covered by the cast of the show Glee.
In many ways, Don’t Stop Believing has become the anthem for a generation raised on “American Idol” and led to believe if you just want something hard enough, if you just don’t stop believing in the dream, if you ignore every rejection, if you never, ever give up, everything you’ve ever wanted will be yours.
This sounds almost like a secular version of enduring to the end, but as Elder Packer said, “The premise is false! It is not true! The Lord taught otherwise.”
In his talk Elder Packer added:
The choice is not between fame and obscurity, nor is the choice between wealth and poverty. The choice is between good and evil, and that is a very different issue indeed.
When we finally understand that [point], our happiness will not be determined by the material things, either on one hand or on the other. Our God has vouchsafed to us our agency. If we can be shown where the deciding formative choices are, we can succeed.
President James Faust summed up a similar sentiment when he wrote, “Your future may not hold fame or fortune, but it can be something far more lasting and fulfilling. Remember that what we do in life echoes in eternity.”
It is important to differentiate between types of fame. For ease of reference, let’s label them Intensive Fame, Excessive Fame, and Extensive Fame.
Extensive Fame
Our elder brother Jesus Christ is extensively famous — his sacrifices for us given not for his own glory, but for the glory of our Father in Heaven and for the humbling and glorious workings of the Atonement. His fame is not based on celebrity, but on his influence and love and the role God ascribed for him to fulfill in this world, which continues to expand and reach out to every corner of the earth.
Christ’s extensive fame is not exclusive. St. Peter doesn’t act as a muscle-bound bouncer with a pair of wings making sure only the secularly cool people get through the gates of Heaven. Christ’s extensive fame is all inclusive. We all share in it when we set aside the things of the world and strive to be Christ-like in our manner and actions.
We have been told we are born to rule and reign, that God has destined each of us for great things in His kingdom. But great things do not necessarily mean fame — at least not in the secular manner we ascribe to celebrities, sports stars, rock stars, and others who may simply be famous for being famous as they chase the adversary’s elusive golden snitch. That’s excessive fame, which isn’t promised to anybody.
Excessive Fame
Excessive fame, the cult of celebrity, is almost always about exclusion. It is almost always self-centric as opposed to service-centric. This doesn’t mean all celebrities are bad, or seeking secular success is wrong. But, if the pursuit of success becomes the pursuit of fame for fame’s sake, or strictly for the self-centered trappings of fame, then it is the Adversary we are following and not the path Christ would have us walk.
Intensive Fame
That leaves intensive fame, which is a gift all of us share. Intensive fame is what you have in your relationships with your mother, father, family members, co-workers, ward members, and individuals in your extended stewardship. Everyone reading this is intensively famous in his own circles and spheres of influence. Even if your relationships are acrimonious, you are still a majorly important factor in the lives of those around you.
Fame Versus Success
If you are seeking to fulfill your destiny, the plan God has for your life, chances are you’re not necessarily going to be excessively famous. No matter how much you spin your wheels, no matter how hard you try, in the lottery of excessive fame your number will most probably not come up.
What is so difficult to understand, however, is this does not mean you cannot be a success. It is a matter of deciding what your priorities are and who you are going to serve. If you are reading Meridian Magazine, chances are you want to serve Christ and our Father in Heaven, to endure to the end, to eventually pass through the veil, having done what you were asked to come here to do, and having been prepared for the great adventures yet to come.
When it was time for Christ to come to earth and begin his mortal ministry, there is no doubt God metaphorically sat down with him, as any father would with a son going out on such an important mission, put his arm around him, and shared with him everything he could about what Christ could expect and what he needed to do. Christ’s mission was far too important to be left to chance. So, too, is each of ours.
And so it was with us in the premortal existence.
Let’s go back to the 1960s again and the television show “Mission Impossible.” Each week Agent Jim Phelps, head of the Impossible Missions Force, would receive a secret tape recording explaining the parameters of his next dangerous operation. Once the recording had given up its information, it would then self-destruct in a puff of smoke.
So, how cool would it be if while we were here in mortality, we received one of those “Mission Impossible” tapes (okay, so today it would come in the form of a DVD or MP3, but you get the idea). However, instead of an anonymous government voice on the tape, it would be a recording of our conversation with Father, explaining just what our mission would be when we agreed to come to earth and obtain a physical body. How fantastic it would be if we could have that conversation refreshed in our mind and to clearly know what we need to accomplish in this form and dispensation.
Wisely, the Lord has drawn a veil over our memories of this conversation — much like the “Mission Impossible” tape going up in smoke. But the Prophet Joseph Smith taught if we could gaze into Heaven for five minutes, we would know more about Heaven than if we studied the topic forever. So, too, it would be with our mission here on earth if we could just listen to that Mission Possible recording.
How clear our mission would be, and how clear the things we would need to do to fulfill it.
President Joseph F. Smith taught the following about our missions on earth:
“He that sent His Only Begotten Son into the world to accomplish the mission, which he did, also sent every soul within the sound of my voice, and indeed every man and woman in the world, to accomplish a mission, and that mission cannot be accomplished by neglect, nor by indifference, nor can it be accomplished in ignorance. We must learn our duty, learn the requirements that the Lord has made at our hands, and understand the responsibilities he has place upon us.”
If you could just watch that Mission Possible DVD or listen to that Mission Possible MP3, it would be so easy to fill out your Things To Do To Accomplish Mission list.
How to Find our Missions
Obviously, our individual Mission Possible DVDs or MP3s are not readily available. However, there are other ways for us to discover key information about our individual missions here on earth.
If you have a patriarchal blessing, review it regularly. If you don’t have one, talk to your bishop about obtaining one. Your patriarchal blessing is a roadmap for your life sent directly from our Father in Heaven. Regular reviews of this valuable document can clarify things, which on first hearing may seem mysterious, and give guidance.
If possible, go to the Temple regularly. While there, engage the Lord in prayer — after thought and deliberation on your part — and seek his confirmation of your path.
Personal, respectful, private prayer and fasting are also tools available to each of us in the seeking of personal revelation to which we are all entitled. The Lord knows each one of us by name and as individuals. He will not let us fail if we are engaging him and living our lives as he would have us do.
However, even without any of these options to help us understand our Mission Possible requirements, do you think becoming a rock star, a movie star, a sports star, or simply being famous for being famous, would be on the list?
There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things. It is possible to be both rich and famous and at once succeed in the eternal spiritual sense. However, the Lord warned of the difficulty of this when He talked of camels and needles.
If you achieve the excessive trappings of fame that accompany these iconic yet secular dreams, you must understand this alone is not what the Lord requires of you — if you are blessed with these successes and have obtained them following correct paths, then you must look for what it is the Lord wants you to do with what you have been given.
For most of us, however, the pursuit of excessive fame can come at a high cost to the more important gift of intensive fame and to those within our stewardship.
Elder Boyd K. Packer reminds us, excellence is a worthy goal — to be good, very good, at whatever you do, to develop your own talents to the fullest extent that you can, to develop into a balanced, worthy, sensible individual. But neither fame nor fortune or both are any more essential as ingredients to true happiness in mortality than the absence of fame and fortune can prevent you from achieving true happiness.
These are the latter days, and there is no time to dawdle. If you are facing rejection after rejection in the pursuit of a self-centric dream, it is time to go to the Lord and find out if you are pursing the right dream or if you are being distracted from the mission you were sent here to complete.
It is right here, right now, within the intensive fame God has given you, that you must reach out to those God has called upon you to reach from where you are right now and right here. Wanting to be somewhere else other than where you are, with someone else other than who you are with, and doing something other than what you are doing, is an unsettling desire sent by the adversary to turn you away from your mission.
Others are relying upon each of you to pull your weight, to complete the Mission Possible you agreed to complete in the premortal existence — and if you don’t know what they are then it’s time, right now, to do what you need to do to get back to the Lord by checking your behavior, by going to the temple, and through prayer and fasting, to get refocused and back on track.
It is our obedience to the Lord that positions us to fulfill the measure of our creation. The more obedient we are to Him, the more we grow into our true selves, and the more we are able to do what we came here to do. Increasing impeccable obedience is the key to finding your mission, and consecration is key to fulfilling your mission once you’ve found it.
To quote from a secular source, one of my favorite writers, Raymond Chandler: “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”
It just may be the song “Don’t Stop Believing” can be taken from the secular and given a righteous spiritual twist.
Stephen E. Robinson, a BYU professor of ancient scripture, gave an amazing devotional in 1990 in which he admonished us not just to believe in Christ, but to believe Christ.
Perfection comes through the Atonement of Christ. We become one with Him. And as we become one, there is a merger. In business, when there is a merger, both sides need to bring something to the table. For us to perfectly merge with Christ, we need to make a true and sincere effort to complete our Mission Possible here on earth — to not just believe Christ is the Son of God, but to also believe what Christ tells us.
Don’t stop believing, is a motto and an admonishment we can all take to heart. Don’t stop believing in Christ. Don’t stop believing in all Christ promises us. Don’t stop believing we are all sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven. Don’t stop believing we each came to this earth for a purpose — to gain a physical body and return to the presence of God — but also with an individual mission designed to serve the Lord and his wondrous purposes.
Don’t stop believing the Lord knows each one of us by name; that he will never turn his back on us; that he has provided us with all we need to discover, understand, and complete our mission here on earth and return to him with honor.
Our past can determine who we are right now, but it does not need to determine who we can become. Through both believing in Christ and believing all He has revealed to us, and continues to reveal to us through President Monson, the Lord’s Prophet here on earth, we can discover our place in this world, a place beyond secular fame and fortune, and the path we must continue to follow back to the true riches of spirit promised to us in the kingdom of God through our Father in Heaven.
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