Who Is Your Role Model?

Recently, while talking with a young co-worker, I was told that she believed that God gave accounts of various people’s lives in order to serve as role models for us.  Which prompted me to think that it made an interesting question.  So let me ask you, Who is your role model?

Actually, the more pertinent question I would like to ask is, Do you hold Biblical figures as role models?  Because if your answer to that question is Yes, then my next question would have to be Why?  You might have deduced by now that I am challenging the notion of Biblical characters being role models.  However, you are really astute if you have come to the conclusion that I am challenging any historic figures as role models.

Before I present my reasoning for that, let me first say that there is nothing wrong with a role model in your life.  Most everyone should have a mentor or trusted advisor in their lives.  And if possible, many of them.  Role models can be a good thing in your life, but they may also be a bad thing IF not kept in the proper perspective, and if not carefully weighed against Scripture and one’s own understanding.  Keep this in mind as you read because I will revisit it near the end of this post.

And to begin with, let me just say that I do not care what your world view is.  You may be Theistic (either Christian or non-Christian), or Atheistic, or Agnostic, there will be concepts here that can be valuable to your life.  Not that the Atheist or the Agnostic, or even some Theistic Christians, and probably most non-Christian Theists will agree with everything I put forward, indeed how could you?  But don’t let my reference to God rob you of being challenged on the concepts of how you apply role models within your life.

Secondly, lets address my young co-workers question about whether or not God gives accounts of Biblical figures in order to act as role models to us today.  My short answer to this is: No, he did not.  In reality, God gave us accounts of Biblical figures in order to reveal some special aspect about Himself and to point to His Honor and for His Glory.  When it comes to Biblical figures I employ one simple rule: It is not about Adam, or Eve, or Noah, or Abraham, or King David, or Peter, James, or John, or Mary, or Martha, or Paul of Tarsus.  IT IS ALL ABOUT JESUS CHRIST, God, in the flesh, come to Earth to die on a Cross for my sins and yours.  Why?  Because we needed saving?  Well, to be sure, Yes.  But the ultimate why is for His Honor and for His Glory.  And thus if I allow my attention to tarry to long on one Biblical figure or another, without the express purpose of finding my way to Jesus Christ and giving God all the Glory, then I have allowed my eyes to stray from Him.  And quite frankly, I don’t see how you can be following after Jesus Christ if you have taken your eyes off of him.  But, but (you might say), can’t they be both?  Cannot a Biblical figure be both a role model and point to Jesus Christ at exactly the same time?  I suppose they could, but the real question is: should they?

And this brings us to my third observation: Should any historical figure be a role model?  Why not Joan of Arc, or Plato, or Socrates, or Benjamin Franklin, or George Washington?  Can we not find admirable traits in the great figures of human history that we would want to emulate within our own lives?  Is it just because a figure appears within Scripture that they become a viable candidate for being a role model?  This goes directly to the heart of what a role model is (or should be/could be) in one’s life.  A role model is someone you want to emulate the behavior of in your own life.  In the here and now.  Today, in real-time.  Oh, you may say that Sgt. York was brave in the face of battle and that I need to be brave.  But don’t you already know you need to be brave?  The real question is How?  Sgt. York was brave on the battle field when faced with enemy forces.  You may never, ever be in a situation like that.  And quite frankly, you have no idea how Sgt. York, or any Biblical figure for that matter, would react to the situations you face in your own life.  Which is why I believe a role model in your life should be a contemporary.  A person you can go to directly and question and work through things with.  A mentor.

And so I have a few simple rules that I employ with regards to role models in one’s life (and no, there are no Biblical role models in my own life save the person of Jesus Christ – however he goes far beyond a role model, even though there are Biblical characters I admire).  And those are:

1. A role model should be a contemporary in one’s own life and should be within the circle of those known that you can easily get to.  A Pastor, a Teacher, an Eagle Scout (who may actually be closer in age to yourself).
2. Public figures, like sports heroes or politicians, may teach us much, and while you may want to emulate some particular style of play for an athlete, or some political tactic for a politician, overall make poor role models.  Unless you are close to them and can question them, challenge them, hash things through with them, you are just using them as an excuse.  Meaning that when you act in some manner because “that is the way my role model would act” you have just made an assumption and placed them in a situation you are making up as you go along.  A role model must be available to you to say “You know, I wouldn’t have done things quite the way you did“.
3. A role model should always be challenged.  Another big reason they need to be a contemporary.  You cannot stand before God and use the excuse “I was just emulating my role model“.  You must always act in your own understanding and because you have rightly divided truth and lie.
4. Never confuse inspiration with emulation.  There may be people who inspire you who are not your role models, and there may be role models you emulate who never inspire you.  But never let either one allow you to take your eyes off of Jesus Christ.

Honestly, with all the bad actors in sports these days, and with the really questionable forays in politics, and with the lack of honorable men and women in our educational institutions, and yes, even the less than admirable pastors and teachers in our churches, it is a wonder if anyone could find a role model to draw upon.  But it shouldn’t force us to go into the annuals of time in order to pull a role model out of some long-lost century and attempt to divine actions applicable to life today.

Rather if Christians were a little more focused on following, which would require them to keep their eyes on Jesus Christ, we might find ourselves all going in the same direction for a change and a little less concerned with our role models.