Citizen Columns
Question
Paris Hilton said in prison that God had given her a second chance. Now that she has been released, what challenges will she face living up to that?
Answer
God touches people's hearts in innumerable ways. Every person of faith can point to moments when they have sensed the presence of God and had some awareness of his guidance. Often this first comes through trauma. And for Paris Hilton, the poor little rich girl accustomed to getting her way, prison was just such a trauma. What was supposed to be a cute publicity stunt all went wrong. On the grand scale of suffering, her few days in prison may be laughed off, but for Paris, it was clearly a break in her life. And God uses those breaks to enter in.
As God told Saint Paul when he complained about his own weakness, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
So Paris Hilton may well have sensed that God was speaking to her in prison and giving her a second chance. But her challenge will be to nurture that seed and keep it from being choked by the thorns of returning to all her old habits.
As Jesus said in the parable of the sower, "As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful" (Matthew 13:22).
She will need to flee publicity instead of seek it. She will need to embrace the silence and time alone that she used to fear. She will need to find quiet ways to share her wealth and serve people in need, without drawing attention to herself.
Like anyone else setting out on a new path, she will have moments of difficulty, temptation and failure. But that's when she especially needs to remember her time in prison.
Not only for its trauma, but for the divine strength she encountered there.
Father John Jillions
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