It is God who we should seek to please all the time. It is God who we should care greatly about disappointing or letting down. No human being can ever come close. Rock-star celebrities – in whatever arena – can only go so far as those we greatly admire and want to be like. All of them will disillusion us and fail us one way or another. None of them deserve our full and total devotion and admiration, no matter how great they are in a given area.

Probably most of us can think of someone that if we knew we had an opportunity to meet we would be all agog and flustered about. We would spend heaps of time and energy to properly present ourselves to some esteemed and greatly loved and admired person. Perhaps it is the Queen or some other world leader. It might be a Hollywood celebrity, or some megastar rocker.

Most of us tend to have those that we look up to, or idolise, or put on a pedestal, or almost worship and adore. We can sometimes almost consider some people to be demigods – so highly do we value and esteem them. There is nothing wrong – generally speaking – with having role models and looking up to some people that you aspire to be like, especially if they are worthy people to emulate.

All sorts of examples come to mind of this. A budding painter may have the highest regard for certain great painters both past and present – say a Rembrandt or a Vermeer. A young basketballer may look up to (in more ways than one) a Shaquille O’Neal or a Michael Jordan.

A wannabe rocker may very much adore a Mick Jagger or an Elvis Presley. An aspiring guitarist may almost worship a Jimi Hendrix or an Eric Clapton. A young poet may strive to be the next Shakespeare. And an up and coming actor may want to be the next Clark Gable or Tom Hanks.

Plenty of other such scenarios could be mentioned here. One notable example of big-time hero worship occurred last night on a television show I happened upon. It had to do with the world of cooking. A number of contestants – both amateurs and professionals – were set a challenge by one of the icons of the cooking world.

On this particular episode of MasterChef Australia these young cooks had their world rocked as they walked into the cooking arena only to find Marco Pierre White, the famous British chef who has been awarded three Michelin stars, standing before them. Talk about being awestruck.

They all seemed to be in shock and awe, trembling in their boots. One of the great heroes of the culinary world was in their midst. They were blown away and almost dumbfounded. And things got even more hardcore when they were told to cook something that he would be tasting and judging. And worse yet, it was one of his own dishes that they had to replicate.

Needless to say, upon learning of their task the contestants were now doubly shaking in their boots. Just imagine: THEIR own cooking would be tasted by this superstar chef. No one wanted to disappoint him. Everyone wanted to impress him and please him. There was so much at stake.

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