Who is your idol?

What I find interesting is that the people that follow your Twitters are called ‘followers’…

I have come to the conclusion that I don’t believe in role models.

It’s easy to get caught up in this seeming need to be influenced and be a “fan” and we are influenced by so many things that we are exposed to. Today we are exposed to certain people via social media and the rest of the mass media, because of their “successes”. They are presented to us as the exceptions among us ordinary mortals, as what we should aspire to be. Closer to home we may see persons who seem to be doing well and who seem to be just cruising through live and we think, “God why can’t that be me?”, or “what am I doing with my life?” There are some who have gotten so invested in the lives of those they “admire” to the point that they don’t really know what’s happening in their own lives. But many of us forget that these people we envy or “admire” are just that, people -human and therefore, fallible. We fail, in some cases because we have become so biased in how we see them and their lives, to realize that their lives are perceived qualities of life that are unattainable -it has been manufactured by them or by others for our consumption. We may become so hypnotized by the seeming success of others that we forget about our own dreams, languishing away on a forgotten shelf, and seek to emulate lives that are often times fake. While we hero-worship or are happily star-struck, our “business a spoil”.

We often times have a distorted view of the lives of those we seek to idolize and who they truly are. So we are not able to see the person for who they truly are because we are looking at them through tinted lenses and not the glaring light of reality. They then become a crutch or escape from the reality of our own “boring” or “uninspiring” lives. The truth is, you will never fully know ANYONE, no matter how close you are to them – and this is scary for most of us so we ignore this truth.

When you get caught up idolizing someone, what may also happen is that you pass up golden opportunities to improve your life because it does not align with what that person did or is doing. The fear of not having or being enough, may drive us to ruin because we try to attain the success that someone else has. Much like chasing shadows. We hang on and implement the advise that they give and their word becomes our manna and gospel and we become their disciples. We feel that we have to do what they did in order to feel good about ourselves and for people to respect and “value” us.

This does not bring growth and happiness into our lives.What it does is make our growth stunted, when we cannot see beyond that idol that has become larger than life. We become fanatics of things and people that become our gods; wasting time, energy and resources to build up and sustain a fantasy. The reality of who our idols are may be too much for many to handle when they are confronted with the truth.

Instead of seeking after idols, we need to find our own path and stick to it. We need to know what we want for ourselves and focus on achieving them. In essence you should never compromise who you were meant to be to make someone bigger than they are. We need to trust that our worth is independent of others and our value is immeasurable. We need to be confident in never losing sight of who we are and our place in this world; everyone fails, even those who are winners, even those who seem to have it all. What we do, especially to the people we idolize, is that we remove their humanity and ask them to fit into a mold that they do not have the capacity to fill – a round peg in a square hole. What we need are not idols or gods or role models but people who bring out the best in each other, who support each other and accept the good along with the bad. There is a danger in idol worshiping and having role models. Because of them we may end up trying to be something and someone we are not, and end up losing ourselves. This is one of the great tragedy of having idols. There is no reward in making gods of mortals and being led by the blind.

Your success is not determined by who you chose to follow but by the power that God has created you with. It is a power that is unique to each of us. No one can make you great,you were already born with that gift. All we need to do is to encourage each other to tap into its source.