What Goes Up Has a Very Good Chance of Coming Down

In the book of Ecclesiastes, the author discovers that the meaning of life isn’t hidden in success, money, lust, or anything material. He wrestles with his thoughts on what life’s all about. At some point in every human’s life, questions about life’s meaning are asked. Some may need to hit rock bottom to ask those questions and others may need to rise to the top. Through the smoke and fog of our lives, there’s a moment of clarity where a person can choose to change directions, search for something better, or choose not to change at all.

DJ Adam Goldstein (also known as DJ AM) struggled with drugs for most of his life. According to People Magazine, “a critical turning point in his life came in 1997, when Goldstein considered suicide. After a night of doing cocaine, Goldstein, 24 at the time, sat before a mirror and ‘could not move away from staring at myself,’ he said. He put a gun in his mouth and, sobbing, said, ‘God, please help me.’ The trigger jammed and Goldstein didn’t succeed in committing suicide; he vowed to never do drugs again. In the 11 years of sobriety that followed, DJ AM made it his personal mission to help those who shared his struggles with drugs. His MTV series, Gone Too Far, was his way of giving other addicts a ray of hope. Unfortunately, DJ AM didn’t stay on the figurative “mountain”; he died of an accidental drug overdose on August 28, 2009.

Mason Betha (aka Ma$e or Murda Mase), formerly a rapper on Bad Boy Records, also had a turning point in his life. As a rapper on Bad Boy Records, Ma$e led the typical hip-hop lifestyle with rappers like Notorious B.I.G and P. Diddy. However, in 1999 Betha renounced his lifestyle and decided to become a Christian pastor. He claimed that he needed to undo the damage that his secular music inflicted on the music industry. According to Betha, “Being a prophet is not much different than being a rapper. They're just serving a different master. In rap, you serve the devil and the money, and things are your god.” He wanted to reach the hip-hop audience to show them that, they too, could live a changed life. However, just like DJ AM, Mason Betha couldn’t stay away from his previous lifestyle for long. He came back to the “scene” with a new name (Murda Mase) and the same lifestyle as before. He didn’t stay on the “mountain” either.

We can search for meaning, we can change our surroundings, but we can’t change our human nature alone. Just like with DJ AM and Ma$e, our human nature will try its best to pull us back down to where we came from. Both DJ AM and Ma$e found that life’s meaning wasn’t in drugs, flashing lights, or gold chains. They tried to change and change others as well. Unfortunately, they didn’t stay changed. What we have to realize is that it is a choice to change, but it is also a choice to stay changed. Without God as the source of meaning, what goes up has a very good chance of coming down.