Most boys, at one time in their lives, have a dream of playing professional sports, competing and winning at the Olympics, making more than $100 million, being famous, and having the approval of countless women.
You’d think the story of Solomon would be enough for all of us to realize that living for possessions, positions, and prestige is vanity. Some estimations say King Solomon could have been worth two trillion dollars. We know he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. And he was a king. Even with the ability to do whatever he wanted, having unlimited women, and having more money than he could spend in his lifetime, Solomon’s conclusion was that it was all “vanity.”
That should be a good enough lesson for us, right? Ah, but history repeats itself. We must learn lessons multiple times. Fortunately, we have more contemporary examples.
Lamar Odom lived the first paragraph of this article. He played 14 seasons at the highest level of basketball, winning two NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic games. He earned roughly $110 million playing professional basketball alone. He married Khloe Kardashian on an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and starred in a spin-off reality TV show titled Khloe and Lamar.
Everything seemed well on the outside, but on the inside Lamar was slowly killing himself with addictions. Porn and drugs monopolized his time and money. He believes he spent around $100 million on drugs. He would get fined $5,000 for being late to the team bus on game day. He said he would be late because he was watching porn in his hotel room and didn’t want to stop. He would look at porn while in bed with women because the real thing wasn’t enough for him. He wanted more.
He nearly died in 2015 while at a Las Vegas brothel. He experienced 12 seizures and six strokes. “They told my loved ones to say their final goodbyes,” he said.
However, Lamar survived the ordeal and says he’s here for a purpose.
“God brought me back for me to tell my testimony and help as many people I can. Just by sharing my story and telling them that they can overcome anything if they put God first and family first. I’m living proof of that. I’m trying to live my best life. If that means giving up porn to do it, then I’m all for it.”