Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who will no longer take advice. One can indeed come out of prison to reign, even though born poor in the kingdom. I saw all the living who, moving about under the sun, follow that youth who replaced the king; there was no end to all those people whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
In the decades I have lived I have seen public officials who truly were public servants, invested fully in the work they had to do, concerned only about that, for the good of people, for the good of the nation, even for the good of the world. Contrast that to people who are seeking fame, to be remembered. Sadly those are the kind that often are remembered as infamous, not famous. Adolph Hitler comes to mind and there’s a host of others.
The best of leaders will all have an asterisk beside their name. All are flawed, humans with feet of clay. And there will always be legitimate questions about their work, leadership, what they did or did not do. Abraham Lincoln comes to mind. As great as he was, he was a person of his times. He may have done well with what he understood, and there may have been little if no escape given the nation as it was at the time, but one can’t help but wonder if some other path might have averted the Civil War in which over 600,000 died (“between 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers…along with an undetermined number of civilian casualties”).
How do we want to be remembered? What value is there in fame? What about the countless number of people loved and appreciated in their family and community for good reason, little if at all known outside of that circle?
God knows. God remembers. When it’s all said and done, let’s serve one another in love, grow in that. And have a heart of compassion with feet on the ground for the people around us in need, as well as those beyond us. In the end, that’s what counts. Fame itself is vanity. It is why one is remembered and what for.
Jesus community 