Reflection on The Brits

I make watching The Brits award show an essential part of my annual viewing schedule as I find it useful in watching popular culture trends, keeping up to date with music culture and seeing who are some of the key influencers of the young people I work with. I also have a passion for music!
This year did not disappoint. There was the usual array of bizarre clothing and hairstyles, typical rock'n'roll antics and language (carefully muted by ITV1) and, of course, the range of "thank yous" from the different award winners. Musicians play music for a reason - they're good at it, we really shouldn't expect them to be able to make speeches!
I am intrigued by Lily Allen's song, The Fear, which she opened up the show with. I have thought for a while how the lyrics are an accurate portrayal of popular culture, how there is a desire to be rich and famous regardless of what the cost is, and yet how this cost leads to losing a sense of personal identity or self esteem, of being 'taken over by The Fear'.
It seemed to me that this was a theme running throughout the ceremony. Lady Gaga was almost overwhelmed with her 3 awards, by the third she seemed to not understand why anyone would have voted for her. Yet her performance was flamboyant and unusual. I felt that she was living out Lily's song as we watched her journey through the evening.
The whole thing was hosted by Peter Kay, who tried to keep all the celebrities in their place, with plenty of quick quips and refusing to double kiss! An anti-celebrity celebrity.
With young people wanting to be famous more than anything else in life, it seems the only way forward is further loss of personal identity and self esteem. So how can we tackle this with the young people we know? The challenge is not easy or simple but it must start by helping them discover who they were meant to be. This means taking them back to the Creator, realising how he made them and the plans he has for them. Helping them discover what grace really looks like, how awesome it is and how releasing & empowering it is. The other thing we need to do is to give them opportunities to use the talents and gifts that God has given them. That way they learn to see how unique they are and learn what their part in God's kingdom is.
Hopefully by doing these kinds of things they will discover what their personal identity looks like and they will love who that person is. Easy to say.

Andy