Carolyn, You're Fired! Time to read Ecclesiastes

Apparently, Carolyn Kepcher was on the wrong side of the table when Donald Trump ended her 15 minutes of fame recently by firing her. This blog entry is not an obituary, but a commentary.

I don't watch reality tv, so I was never attached to The Apprentice and the loony goings-ons that no doubt occurred season after season. But Carolyn Kepcher's unceremonious departure from Trump's inner circle is a very clear object lesson for the rest of us. Put simply, ladder climbing ain't all that. Kepcher's story up until her firing was celebrated as a great success story. She made a ton of money, wrote a book that was successful for about 3 weeks (as most celebrity books are), and she commanded a $25K speaking fee as she gave speeches all across the country. And then, just like that, it's gone.

Now I don't like or dislike Carolyn Kepcher; it's a benefit of not being consumed with a contrived reality show. But her rise and fall mirrors similar rises and falls that have occurred countless times before. Ladder climbing ain't all that. Kepcher's sudden firing demonstrates that an obsession with earthly success (and the fame and stature it sometimes brings) as an end unto itself is little more than chasing after the wind. This doesn't mean we shouldn't work hard, or try to be successful at what we invest our energy in; not at all. What it does mean is that our efforts and our goals need to be properly based on things that will last and cannot be taken away. Money can be taken away. A job can be taken away. A person's power or celebrity status can be taken away. Even freedom can be taken away. And all of these things can be taken away either through our own mistakes, or by circumstances beyond our control. These things are hardly the kind of stable foundation upon which to build anything that will last.

So many of us chase after the wind, even though we know it's a fool's errand. I do it, and so do many others because we convince ourselves that we're doing something more meaningful and tangible that wind chasing. Many people base their day to day living on the stories they've constructed for themselves in order to try and give their lives structure and meaning. Some stories are better than others, in that some stories actually enter the realm of non-fiction rather than just being another addition to the fantasy genre. It's funny how stories that start out on solid footing can so easily morph into fiction when we become enticed by things that are more ethereal than real. It's a great challenge to keep our stories committed to what is real, and to live our lives that way no matter what happens. Earthly success and earthly failure both put the life stories we've constructed to the test, and they help reveal what we're really living for and what values and guiding principles we've really adopted that largely dictate what we do and how we do it. In Kepcher's case, the public reason for her firing is that the celebrity she enjoyed went to her head so that her priorities changed for the worse. I don't know whether this is true or not. I do know that chasing after celebrity is just as ethereal as chasing after cutthroat business success. Taken by itself, it's all just chasing after the wind. Or, as someone much wiser than me once said, "All is vanity."

Introspection is both a great and terrible thing, I've found. Introspection is good in that I don't think I'm living life on the surface, or am embracing superficial and temporal principles that honest introspection will brutally expose. But on the other hand, introspection can also lead to despair precisely because human introspection without divine intervention often turns into a car going down a mountain without any brakes.

Carolyn, and the rest of us, would do well to read Ecclesiastes. As much as any book in the Bible, Ecclesiastes speaks to our wind chasing culture, and shows its folly in spades. Unlike many, I think Ecclesiastes is a very hopeful book, because it stresses redemption and deliverance from the great conundrums of life through a sovereign God who is the keeper of all wisdom. Ecclesiastes really shows us that when God is our boss, we'll never get fired, because eternal security is diametrically different than wind chasing.

I wish Carolyn Kepcher well.