Most of us have role models, people we greatly
respect and even would like to emulate. After watching the Olympics, athletes
like Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles no doubt gained many
thousands of new, ardent admirers. We might have someone at work, a very
accomplished veteran, whose abilities and traits we’d like to see in our own
lives.
Students often have favorite teachers, people
who made learning not just fun, but truly an adventure. “I want to be like her
(or him),” is a common reaction when we’re in the presence of an inspirational
educator. As a writer, I’ve had a number of authors who in one way or another
served as role models as I forged my own journalistic and literary career.
But have you ever considered that perhaps the
very best role models are…no longer living? I started pondering this recently
after hearing someone on the radio state emphatically, “All of my role models
are dead.”
Think about it: How many times have we read
sad reports about some supposedly upstanding citizen – an entertainer, athlete,
politician, business leader, even a pastor or ministry leader – a revered role model for many, who was
exposed for scandalous moral or ethical behavior? What happens when those we
place on a pedestal tragically fall from grace, so to speak? We become
disheartened, disillusioned, even devastated. How could those we held in such
high esteem stoop so low?
So perhaps it’s a good idea for our role
models to be from a different place and time. A local pastor for years has led
a weekly discussion group called the Dead Theologians Society, in which men and
women review the writings of Christian leaders from centuries past. Part of the
reasoning is that eternal truth never has an expiration date. But there’s also
no danger that sage spiritual minds of the past – like Augustine, Charles H. Spurgeon,
St. Francis of Assisi, Andrew Murray, Martin Luther, A.W. Tozer, Teresa of
Avila, Oswald Chambers, C.S. Lewis, Corrie ten Boom, John Bunyan, and many others
– will become the subject of disgraceful headlines in tomorrow’s newspaper, on the
Internet, or the nightly news.
This is one
reason Hebrews 11 is such an important chapter in the Bible. Here we find men
and women of faith – starting with Abel and continuing with other Old Testament
patriarchs like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samson, David, Samuel and the
prophets. As Hebrews 11:13 states, “All
these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive
the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And
they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.”
Later the
chapter talks about individuals “who
through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was
promised…” (verse 33). But it also points out that others, “were tortured and refused to be released….
Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in
prison…stoned; they were sawed in two, hey were put to death by the sword…” (Hebrews
11:35-37). Could we face that and remain true to what we believe?
The chapter
concludes by stating, “These were all
commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised” (Hebrews
11:39). In other words, they still were looking for the promised Messiah,
clinging to the hope of redemption and life everlasting. And they didn’t have a
local Christian bookstore, or a handy Internet website to go to for
encouragement. All they had was faith, which the first verse of Hebrews 11 declares
to be, “the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.”
One of the
hardest things in life is finishing well, whether it’s pursuing a college
education, competing in an athletic event, forging a career, building a healthy
marriage and family, or walking with God. It’s too easy, too tempting, to quit
or take a detour along the way.
Many of our
personal role models have started well. But how will they finish? Will we
become disappointed to see them decide it’s not worth finishing their marathon?
Will we discover their talk was a lot larger than their walk?
