Six Degrees of Separation and One Breath to Eternity
Perhaps you have heard of the six degrees of separation social theory. This is the idea that each individual in the world is six or fewer social connections away from everyone else. Sometimes it is surprising to learn that somebody with whom you are acquainted is only a couple of degrees removed from someone who is quite famous or influential.
Last year our church bade farewell to a former deacon who died in his eighties. Ray became a Christian as a young adult, and lived a quiet life of service to the Lord and to others. After serving in the U.S. Army in the late 1950’s, Ray went to work in a Pontiac Motors manufacturing plant. A Christian coworker shared the gospel with Ray, and led him to faith in Christ. Ray began attending church. There he met and married a young lady. Together they raised two sons. Ray served in his church’s bus ministry, bringing children and teenagers to church. He also took vacation time to assist in the church’s summer youth camp. After retiring, Ray continued to assist in ministry, helping Continental Baptist Mission with church construction projects. Even when later limited by the infirmities of old age, such as increasing hearing loss, Ray did what he could. A favorite memory is seeing Ray sitting out of doors on a folding chair chipping the mortar off used bricks so they could be repurposed on an addition to our church. There was nothing dramatic or dynamic about Ray. He was a kind Christian man who led what most would consider a rather ordinary life.
While visiting with Ray’s widow shortly after his death, she told me something I already knew – that Ray was stationed in West Germany in the Army in 1958 and 1959. Then she asked me if I knew who else was stationed in West Germany at the same time. Actually, I did know. I answered, “Elvis Presley?” She then produced several one-of-a-kind glossy photographs that Ray had taken of Elvis – in his uniform, standing in a group, wrenching under the hood of a Jeep. How many degrees of separation would I assume there were between Ray and Elvis Presley? Certainly not just one! What a surprise. What a contrast.
To refer to Elvis Presley as a celebrity is inadequate. Elvis was a cultural phenomenon. He was the leading figurein the 1950’s of a newly popular music style – rock and roll. John Lennon of the Beatles said, “Before Elvis there was nothing.” He was a top-paid Hollywood actor, starring in over thirty motion pictures. Producer Hal Wallace said, “A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood.” In the 1970’s, Elvis began performing concerts in Las Vegas casino showrooms, and then took his show across America. He filled the largest venues. His 1973 satellite broadcast from Hawaii was seen by 1.5 billion people in thirty-six countries. His shows always sold out. It was said, Elvis never performed before an empty seat. Were “the King of Rock and Roll” alive today he would be ninety years old. Sadly, Elvis Presley died in 1977 at the age of forty-two. He died of a heart attack brought on in large part by the misuse of prescription drugs.
Elvis acquired what most only dream about – fame and fortune. And he did so in an unparalleled amount. As I said, what a contrast to his Army comrade, Ray. Yet, subtracting the brevity of Elvis’s life and the longevity of Ray’s, which of these two lived a life worth emulating? Which lived a life we would covet for ourselves or for our children?
Millions mourned when Elvis died. A small group of family and friends grieved for Ray. Ray achieved no fame, amassed no fortune. He lived a life of simple goodness. Numbers 23:10 says, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” What matters is faith in Christ, and a life lived like the Savior’s. Jesus was a poor man who went about doing good. He was despised and rejected of men, yet He heard the heavenly Father say of Him, “I am well-pleased.” Not the rich, famous, or talented, but the man who someday hears the Lord say, “Well done” is the man who lives and dies well.
David A. Oliver is the pastor of Ashley Baptist Church in Belding, MI.