I heard on an evening talk show the other evening that they had found a “rider” for Sarah Palin left on an airline, and it peaked my interest into the ridiculous lives of celebrities. I stumbled on a website devoted entirely to the outrageous riders of actors, singers and musicians, and I was oddly drawn to a rider for Carrot Top.

Now I am not poking fun at Carrot Top, but the length of his rider, and the specifics involved were quite Madonna-like. And with all of his ridiculous requests, I was drawn to rethink my relationship with God, and the ridiculous requests that I far too often make of Him. As easy as it is to poke fun at the requests of stars to be treated like royalty, we so often do the same things with God. We often commit ourselves to God, to serve Him, to love Him, to keep Him priority one, but in our hearts we write out our own  often silly conditions on how God is supposed to deal with us. We make conditions on how comfortable we would like to be, on who we are willing to serve, and for how long, and just how much we are willing to sacrifice for God.

Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we are a society obsessed with ourselves, and we as Christians have become, “born-again lazy” (a term from a wonderful book, Starving Jesus). We make silly demands on God for health, wealth and happiness all of the time, in big ways and small. Our faithfulness waivers with the wind, and I believe it is high time that we throw out our “riders” that we so carelessly make with God. Let’s stop picking and choosing when it is convenient to be a Christian, and instead live the lives that Christ called us too. Let us live lives of devotion out of necessity, because that in the end is what we were made for!

Visit the following link to view other celebrity riders: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/

April 21, 2010 <> Mike Warneke

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