Arsenio Hall is wondering what happened. He told USA Weekend that his show biz connections disappeared after his talk show was dumped in 1994. “I found out I didn’t have friends like I thought I did,” he said. “I had power, I didn’t have friends. As soon as the show ended, I didn’t get calls, tickets, invitations, anything.” His experience is similar to that of many others.
The young son of the rich Jewish father was the center of attention and the focus of an enviable popularity as long as his funds held out. And they must have been considerable. His father had, reluctantly no doubt, given him his part of his inheritance, before the son left to go into what is described only as the far country. When his money ran out, so did his friends. He couldn’t get a handout so he wound up herding swine – the most demeaning job imaginable for a Jewish lad.
He found out what Arsenio Hall found out: true friends are hard to come by. He also found out what many a prodigal son since then found out: that you sometimes have to hit bottom before you come to your senses! It took running out of money, running out of friends, and having to eat the same fare the hogs were eating to restore his sanity! “But when he came to himself he said: “I will go to my father I have sinned against God and you and am not worthy to be called your son.” Luke 15:17-18. When he did that, the father received him back.
One of the marvelous things said about Christ was intended as a slur: “He is a friend of publicans and sinners.” Luke 7:34. The Proverbs state: “A man of many companions may come to ruin; but there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” How bless we are to have a God such as this!
