This happened several months ago but I've been looking for something to blog about and this seemed like an interesting topic.
Stephen Christian is the lead singer/songwriter from American band anberlin. His music, lyrics and views on love and religion mirror my own and he has a way with words that gives me goosebumps. In short, I'd call him my 'idol' (I have many people that I look up to but if I had to pick just one it would be him).
His battles with God while growing up are something we have in common, and it's comforting to know that others have gone through things like that and come out as amazing and inspiring people. Most of this is irrelevant though, what's relevant is that from the outside he appears to be a well-mannered Christian. Intelligent, interesting and artistically genius.
But step into his head and you discover almost every relationship he's been in has overlapped with the previous one. Put simply, he's cheated on a lot of girlfriends over the years.
Cheating on someone, in my books, is the worst possible thing you can do. The lowest of the lows. And here I find that one the people I respect above all others is also one of the people I hate above all others. Hence my question, what do you do when your idol becomes your enemy?
For me it wasn't actually as devastating as you might think. Sure I was shocked, and hugely disappointed. But it didn't take me long to realise that I can't expect anyone to be perfect. Reading through the rest of the post helped as well, as he admits his mistakes and expresses his remorse. Hardly excuses the act but it does mean something.
There's not really a point to this blog, it's just something I've been thinking about. If you've come here looking for some kind of wisdom I guess what I'm trying to say is, be inspired by people and look up to people, but don't follow them, and never believe that they are without flaws. And don't despair when you discover the dark side to your heroes. They are after all, only human.
If he was a perfect person, he wouldn't be able to write lyrics laced with such... anger, self loathing, knowledge of the evils within. Think about it... A Day Late:
ReplyDelete"Insignificantly Enough, we both have Significant Others."
That song is way too passionate to be about a chance meeting of people who used to have crushes on each other but now they pass each other in the street and just say hello.
But you can mix your idols. You can hold him up as an idol in some parts, but the parts where he fails you, hold someone else up instead. Most importantly, make yourself into the kind of role model you would see in the world. The kind of person I know you are, you're already going there.
Great post.