He stood in full valor
She shone in glamor
Their poise we praised
Their traits we traced
To them we lifted our heads
Their ways won our hearts
And to them we gazed
Until the strain that grazed
Bared them just as fallible
And just as gullible
As the rest of us.

We live in times that people are desperate for role models. We all want someone we can glamorize and display as a model of what we believe, a symbol that our beliefs work. What they say become “The slogan” and what they do, “Our goals” as we aspire to be like them, talk like them and live like them. They become faces that represent our cause, our faith, our goals in life. Any wonder their failure affects us personally?

Such deification puts pressure on these models whose humanity must be shielded at all cost until they can no longer hold it in and the bubble bursts. Then those who looked to them are surprised, floored and overwhelmed by disappointment. We forget that models are human. The only one deserving of such places where we thrust these models is God – He is the only one who is perfect and infallible. Every other will fall. Every human will fail at something, at one time or the other. We can only pray that such failures be not permanent.

There is nothing wrong in being or having a role mode. Paul put it in context when he encouraged believers to follow him as he follows Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). What that meant is that for as long as he is following Christ, we all walk in the same footprints Jesus left behind irrespective of who steps in earlier or later. It also means that the moment he starts walking in the steps of another, who is not Christ and who is not following Christ, then he has gone a different way and we must go our separate ways. We don’t have to follow him or any other in any step that is not Christ’s.

It was Christ who died for us not the models we look up to, ancient or modern. We live for Jesus not for them. We follow Jesus not them and if we follow them, it must be because they are walking in the steps of our Christ. Christ is the head of the Church, the Captain of our salvation, our Guide and Leader in this journey of life. We follow whoever follows our Leader and the day they cease to follow Him, we must make the choice whether to stick with our Guide or idolize our strayed models as our new gods and guides.

We don’t stop believing because our models quit – they are human. We don’t jump off the ship because the guy ahead jumped – we sit still and follow the directions of the Captain of this eternal Ark. Our faith is in the infallible Jehovah and in His blameless Son. We don’t stray because models stray. We stay the course, keeping our eyes on Jesus who is the beginning and the end of this race. We may have many models but there is only one Christ who is our ultimate Model. Every other will fail and their failure must not deviate our course, our faith, our walk with God.

To be continued.

Glory!