When I ask you who do you look up to, a 5-year-old you might have said “my mom/dad,” a 13-year-old angsty you might have said the name of any teen pop sensation, and a current you might say anyone ranging from a family member to a celebrity or even a close friend. Probably about 99 percent of us might even say Beyonce, but what does it truly mean when we say that we look up to these people?
In a way we idolize them, put them up on a pedestal, and yearn to be like them. We look at their lives plastered on never-ending Instagram profiles and scrolling through their Facebook timeline at ungodly hours of the morning while silently critiquing ourselves on why we can’t be like them. We choose and pick people that we obsess with and our hearts fight over the idea of changing ourselves to be like them. These "idols" can be people like our parents, our close friends, our youth group leaders, or our Bigs or Littles. While I feel like I lose grasp of what the line between what a role model looks like and what an idol looks like, it becomes clear to me that I want to be like these people because I want to have the life that they have. I want people to see me with the same look of mixed happiness and adoration as people see them.
I want you to pick a person that you truly idolize, the person that you social media stalk like there’s no tomorrow. Now understand that when we obsess over someone, regardless of who it is, we start to elevate them on a pedestal that we crane our necks up to look at where they stand. We begin to see ourselves getting smaller and smaller and maybe even less significant. The process begins to take its toll on us, and we start shifting our day to day routine and behavior to reflect our idol instead of bettering ourselves for genuine reasons instead. And we begin to ask ourselves “what would that person do?” but that question proves to be as elusive technique to discredit ourselves. We often forget to take into consideration that we chose these people to idolize because they have made it seem as if their life is well put together. It seems like their life is on cloud nine constantly, and we see them and aspire to have the same life.
But hear me when I say that you are so much more than how you see yourself. You were made from the Creator’s hands, sculpted with a purpose and plan that doesn’t include idolizing other gods besides Him. He didn’t create us knowing the amount of hair that would be on our head, what would happen to us in exactly five years at this time, and constantly pursuing us with His heart and love so that we could develop false self esteem through man’s compliments and temporary affection. We were made to call upon His name and to pursue His Kingdom. The amount of Instagram likes, Twitter retweets, or price of clothes you wear will not matter in the next five years. What matters is how you choose to represent Him and how you choose to be in this world and not of it.
We need to stop worrying about how we can live the perfect life and obsessing over people through the bright screens of our iPhones. We need to take a moment and understand that there are 7 billion people on this planet and our identity is all that we truly have to ourselves. It's how we differentiate ourselves, it's what makes humanity so incredible through our Creator's eyes. Each of us are so vastly different from each other, so why should we strive to be like other people so badly?
