SALT 'N' LIGHT #1
The Prayers of Matthew Perry
A young Matthew Perry was sitting alone in his small 10th floor apartment in Los Angeles reading the paper. He was reading about the latest tumultuous episode in the life of the American actor Charlie Sheen. Sheen was at the centre of another media scandal, but Matthew thought to himself, “Why does he care — he's famous!”
Matthew Perry was an aspiring actor, but by the time he was 18, he was drinking every day. ‘If I could just become famous’ he thought, ‘surely that would heal the pain I’m trying to numb.’
He got down on his knees, closed his eyes and prayed,
"God, you can do whatever you want to me. Just please make me famous."
Three weeks later, he auditioned for the role of Chandler Bing on a new sitcom show on NBC called Friends. When he read the script, he found that the role of Chandler was perfect for him! "It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life”. He was Chandler!
Friends was a massive hit and quickly became compulsive viewing for an entire generation of young people. One of the biggest draws of the show was that people could relate to the characters. The show presented viewers with a group of friends with traits that they could see in themselves or see in their friends - whether it was the geekiness of Ross, the eccentricity of Phoebe, the perfectionism of Monica, the spoilt Rachel and, of course, the awkward sarcastic wit of Chandler. Friends had and still has, a huge following and consistently, Chandler comes out top of ‘favourite character’ polls.
Matthew Perry had achieved the fame he had longed for. The enduring popularity of Friends meant his fame would last well beyond the screening of the sitcom’s final episode.
He published an autobiography about a year ago entitled Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. The memoir opens with this line.
“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”
This shocking opening line is expanded upon in the book as Perry gives a brutally honest account of his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, which seemed to intensify with the fame he had longed for. Fame was not the answer he had hoped it would be. Looking back at his earlier prayer, he described it as a “very dumb prayer” and reflected that:
“You have to get famous to know that it’s not the answer. And nobody who is not famous will ever truly believe that.”
We all have a desire to be recognised, to strive for success in our lives and thereby gain recognition and glory from the world. Like Matthew Perry, we may think that this will solve our problems.
Matthew Perry thought that becoming famous would make all his problems disappear, but that was far from true. When we read about the lives of the rich and famous, many appear to be very unhappy, and if you listen to them, they will tell you that themselves. As Solomon observed, “Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied.” Or, as Peter quoted from Isaiah, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall.” The fame and glory we gain in this life can never satisfy and will never last. So what is the answer? God’s word is very clear on what satisfies and what lasts:
Psalm 90 v 12: Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
1 John 2 v 17: The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Returning to Matthew Perry, his addiction to drugs and alcohol kept getting worse. In his book, Matthew Perry stated that he thought he had blacked out a few times while filming F.R.I.E.N.D.S. since he could not recall recording certain sequences. He recalled that he used to take around 55 Vicodin tablets every day.
The actor spent close to $9 million on treatment and rehabilitation programmes, and his addiction also led to the top row of his teeth falling out. Due to his addiction, Matthew Perry had experienced 15 stomach injuries and over 60 attempts at detoxing.
When he had reached rock bottom, Matthew Perry found himself praying again, this time in desperation:
“God, please help me, show me that you are here. God, please help me.”
He recounts that as he kneeled:
“the light slowly began to get bigger, and bigger, until it was so big that it encompassed the entire room…What was happening? And why was I starting to feel better? I started to cry. I mean, I really started to cry - that shoulder-shaking kind of uncontrollable weeping. I wasn’t crying because I was sad. I was crying because for the first time in my life, I felt OK. I felt safe, taken care of. Decades of struggling with God, and wrestling with life, and sadness, all was being washed away, like a river of pain gone into oblivion. I had been in the presence of God. I was certain of it. And this time I had prayed for the right thing: help.”
The book of Psalms is full of this exact prayer - God, please help me! You can look them up - Psalm 22 v 19, Psalm 38 v 22, Psalm 40 v 13, Psalm 59 v 4, Psalm 70 v 1, Psalm 71 v 12, Psalm 109 v 21, Psalm 109 v 26, Psalm 119 v 86, Psalm 119 v 73. There are also many other Psalms that use different words like save or deliver or where the Psalmist describes God as their help. This second prayer of Matthew Perry, in contrast to the first, is one that God encourages us to pray, not just once but again and again and promises that he will respond, as Matthew Perry was able to testify.
No matter how far you feel you have sunk into the pit, you are not beyond the reach of Almighty God; he can draw you up out of the pit and give you a firm place to stand and a new song to sing if you call out to him for mercy (Psalm 40).
Last Saturday, Matthew Perry died. The world lost a comic genius, and many felt they had lost a friend. The circumstances of his death are still unclear, and we don’t know whether he was trusting in the God who had revealed himself to him in his darkest moment. But we can learn from his life that the fame and glory in this life is not the answer to our problem. Instead, salvation comes only from God and only through His mercy, which is offered to us through Jesus.
You can listen to a short clip of Matthew Perry talking about his two prayers below.
Czinger 21C
The automotive company Czinger has recently released the Czinger 21C, which was designed and 3D-printed by Machine Intelligence.
As can be seen from the above images, the structural parts of the car have a striking biological resemblance. The spokesman for the company explains:
“you see structures on this vehicle that look biologic, not because we were trying to make them look that way…”
He goes on to say that the AI was tasked with finding the most efficient placement of material to create the most rigid, but also the lightest, chassis possible. It turns out that some of the world's most advanced software and machinery could not top what God had already designed: the skeletal structure.
The use of God’s design in human inventions is so common that there is a name given to this branch of science: bionics. Unfortunately, giving God the glory for His wisdom and beauty is not nearly so prevalent.
The manufacturers of this car, like so many scientists, are left giving a lukewarm explanation to the tune of “nature has a way”, but we know that materials don’t arrange themselves in a perfect sequence:
“…the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything."
Hebrews 3:3,4
The Czinger 21C (representing the 21st Century) is setting all sorts of performance benchmarks, and it is clear who the glory and praise should be given. As human inventions continue to break new barriers, we need to remember they are merely pale reflections of the ultimate designer and creator’s work, one who not only creates but restores and redeems His corrupted world.
You can find out more about the Czinger 21C by watching the video below.
A Captain For Christ
Last Saturday, like many others, I was glued to my television, watching the nail-biting finale of the Rugby World Cup. Having recovered from the gut-punch that was Ireland’s exit, the physicality, teamwork and the desire to win from both the New Zealanders and South Africa were enough to distract from the absence of the boys in green.
Anyone who has grown up watching and playing sport will have had heroes and role models whose images were plastered over their bedroom walls or the background of their electronic devices.
Thankfully, God has provided Sportsmen and women who share our love for Jesus and give us an example of how to play our sport for the glory of God. Many of us have read of Eric Liddell and his exploits on the track and his obedience to God when he refused to race on the Sabbath day. When I was growing up, I remember the Brazilian footballer Kaka revealing his “I BELONG TO JESUS” T-shirt after winning the Champions League with AC Milan in 2007. I’m sure there are many others you can think of as well.
On Saturday, Siya Kolisi captained South Africa to retain the Rugby World, becoming only the second-ever male player, after New Zealand's Richie McCaw, to lead his team to back-to-back triumphs. Unlike many other sporting captains, he regularly takes the opportunity on the pitch, during interviews and on social media to praise and thank his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and dedicate all his success to him.
Kolisi has an amazing story to tell. Siya was born in the Zwide Township outside Port Elizabeth to teenage parents. Siya’s mother died when he was 15, and his grandmother cared for him for a few months until she also died. Sleeping on the floor and going without food was a regular occurrence.
But God had given Kolisi a talent; he could play rugby! The sport provided an escape from the struggles and temptations of the township. He began to play at the age of 8, and at 12, his talent had been spotted. By 19, he had become a professional rugby player. At 21, he had played his first game for the South African national team.
Although his Grandmother died when he was young, her faith in Jesus Christ had a great influence on his life. He recalls how she regularly brought him to church, taught him, and gave him an example to follow. “She always put me ahead of herself and suffered so that I could be what I needed to be.”
In 2015, Siya began to feel the Holy Spirit pursuing him as he struggled with temptations, sins, and lifestyle choices. His sin had been exposed, and he realized that, although he called himself a Christian, he had not lived the Christ-like life his grandmother had taught and demonstrated.
“Up to that point, everything I was fighting against was hidden, but when my sin was exposed, I knew I either had to change my life, or lose everything. I decided to lose my life and find it in Christ.”
Kolisi would go on to captain his nation to World Cup glory in 2019.
Four years later, Kolisi’s hopes of captaining his country in another World Cup were dashed by a tear to his anterior cruciate knee ligament sustained only months away from the tournament. The subsequent surgery meant that there were concerns he would miss the tournament, but his wife implored her social media followers to pray. Speaking to the media about the injury, Kolisi said:
“My foundation was in God, if I didn’t know something, I prayed about it. I also read the [Bible] verses that people sent me. That was my comfort zone. It is where I found peace. It is huge for me. Not just through the injury, it is every day. It is me not taking all the glory for myself, knowing where it comes from.”
You can watch a video of Kolisi discussing his recovery from his knee injury below.
On the 19th of August, Siya Kolisi led his team out once again in a World warm-up match against Wales three weeks before the start of the tournament, and last Saturday, he hoisted the Webb Ellis Rugby World Cup trophy aloft once again. Throughout the tournaments, both pundits and players spoke highly of the dedication and leadership he played with on the field and the grace and humility he spoke with off the field. Kolisi is not perfect, and we should not idolise him or put him up on a pedestal. But we should thank God for the Christian examples he has given us to encourage us as we strive to glorify and honour in everything that we do.
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