By Xiaolu

The 21st century is an era where people follow celebrities. I, born in the 00’s, was not interested in it in the beginning, and whenever I saw my classmates crazily doing that in various ways, I felt it was so boring. However, later on by chance I actually also indulged in following celebrities …

A novel caused me to start following celebrities.

One day, I read a teen romance novel which presented a love story among three male celebrities and a girl. After I finished reading it at a stretch, the three boys left a very deep impression on me, and I thought: “If only I could be the female protagonist.” And I thought that the three boys were just the characters in the novel, but to my surprise they were actually a singing group in real life.

The next day when I arrived at school, I heard some of my classmates talking about a new singing group that was very popular. Upon hearing that their names were the same as those of the male protagonists in the novel I had read, I became extremely excited and couldn’t wait to go online to search for them. When I saw their photos, I was immediately attracted by their glowing and handsome appearances. The thought of the romantic story in the novel among them and the female protagonist got me more excited, and I also wanted to enter their lives to enjoy the romance.

Following that, I started to pay attention to everything about them through TV and my cell phone. I looked online for their detailed information, such as their heights, weights, and birthdays, what signs they were born under, where they were born, which school they graduated from, what they liked to eat, what they did in their group and so on. When I learned that they were just one or two years older than me, I felt closer to them and really regretted not to have heard of them earlier.

I followed celebrities crazily and became depraved.

I started to collect their songs and tirelessly learn them one by one, and I also copied their actions. As I sang, I was enchanted by their singing. Gradually, I began to follow them on Weibo, China’s Twitter, know their tours, read all news related to them, and watch all their concerts and variety shows all the way back to their debut. What’s more, I watched their every performance, and whenever I saw the moment of their entrances with glowing, handsome and charming appearances and heard their magnificent singing, I would be so excited that my heart started pounding and I could not help but whoop with joy.

Since then following celebrities became my whole life. Every day, focusing on everything about this trio occupied all of my time and I thought of nothing but them. As a result, when in class I was always distracted, unable to listen to anything my teachers said, and just desired to get out of school as soon as possible so that I could go online to watch the latest news about them. During summer vacation, I had more time to pay close attention to them. The first thing I did when I woke up every morning was to see their Weibo to see whether they had updated their movements or tour dates, and then watch their news and videos. Next I would search for their novels and read them one by one. Their stories moved my heart so that I always spent my days reading in bed from the time I got up in the morning until 1–2 in the next morning and my eyes didn’t leave my phone even for a single moment; sometimes I was so fascinated that I even forgot to eat and go to the bathroom … Over time, my life was completely disrupted and some bad ailments appeared in my body: Every morning when I woke up, my brain was in buzz and heavy lids drooped over my eyes; the dark circles around my eyes deepened more and more, and my legs felt as heavy as lead. Despite this, I still couldn’t help thinking about all three of them. Their glamorous figures on stages raced through my mind, at every moment I wanted to know everything about them, and I even always dreamed that someday I could meet them by chance at a crossing in a romantic way.
Seeing me constantly staring at my phone to follow celebrities, my mother earnestly told me, “You shouldn’t stay up late every day. That is harmful to your health. You should rest regularly, eat right, and during vacation read more of God’s words. Following celebrities will seduce you and make you depraved….” As soon as I heard my mother say that, I would at once retort, “You should mind your own business,” and then start a huge argument with her, which caused the atmosphere at my home to grow extremely tense. No matter how my mother persuaded me, I just couldn’t listen to her and still indulged in following celebrities as before. Because I stayed up late and had an irregular life and sleeping pattern for a long time, I suffered from lack of appetite and developed neck problems, and my memory significantly deteriorated to the point that I didn’t even remember what I had thought or done every day. I was often absent-minded and felt very miserable and empty as if my heart had been hollowed out.

God’s words guided me to know the essence of following celebrities.

One day, when seeing how I was suffering, my mother sat beside me and patiently said to me, “If we don’t read God’s words, then we can’t understand many things, can’t discern positive from negative things or see through Satan’s tricks to corrupt mankind, and thus we live in Satan’s harm and don’t even know it! You like handsome celebrities, and this is very normal. But you are indulging in following them, and this is the way that you have fallen right into Satan’s trap. If you continue to be addicted to it, you’ll be decadent. Let’s take a look together at the words of God.” As she said this, she opened the book of God’s words and let me read.

I read these words of God, “Satan uses this method to invent, fabricate and play out some stories, and it especially deceives these simple-minded, brainless adolescents. Have you been influenced at all? (Yes.) Is it then easy to remove and cleanse yourselves of this poison? Once you have been influenced, these things enter your thoughts and become a kind of poison. You only need to fail to see through this poison and you will then be unable to give it up completely; if you are influenced by it for one day, you will be disturbed and controlled by it for that one day. Do you believe this? (Yes.) So how can this matter be resolved? Is it easy to resolve? Do you wish to relinquish these things? (Yes.) How much do you wish it? You sometimes think: ‘I feel a little unwilling to part with these things. Why do I have to relinquish them? It’s great to have these things and we had a hard time getting them instilled inside ourselves. They aren’t poison at all, are they?’ With this thinking you won’t be able to relinquish them.” “The devil Satan does these things in order to tempt people and bring them to depravation. Those who live in the virtual world have no interest whatsoever in anything to do with the life of normal humanity; they are just not in the mood to work or study. Their only concern is going to the virtual world, as though they are being enticed by something. … This evil world uses all manner of methods to attract people who have not seen through the world and the evil trends of humanity; these are particularly seductive to such people. If you cannot frequently come before God, and if your heart and mind are often blank, then you are at risk.”

After reading God’s words, I suddenly saw the light. It turned out that the path of following celebrities I had been addicted to came from Satan. Satan used the fictional romantic love stories in romance novels to attract me and to cause me to become obsessed with the three male singers who made me vacillate between joy and sorrow. Consequently, I lived in a fantasy world, in which I was disturbed and controlled so that I became addicted to following celebrities, became depraved, and finally sank down into it. Every day from dawn until dusk I clutched my cell phone to pay attention to their news and movements, as if my heart had been captured by them. I secretly loved them and in my mind there formed various sketchy images of me romantically encountering them. Besides, I took my mother’s kind warnings into one ear and out the other and even turned on and lost my temper with her; I became ever more temperamental and lacked any normal sense of humanity. Moreover, because I stayed up late to follow celebrities for a long time, my health became ever worse and I became dispirited and lost the vitality the young should have. All of these harms were caused me by Satan’s evil trends. If I continued in this way, I really didn’t know what Satan’s tricks would turn me into. Thinking of this made me feel extremely scared, and so I silently prayed to God to make a resolution: “I will live by God’s words to shun the evil trends, free myself from Satan’s control, and return to a normal life.”

Because I was greatly indulged in following celebrities, I was entrapped by temptation once again.

Afterward, when I again wanted to watch their news and videos, I would pray to God and consciously forsake myself. However, no matter how hard I tried, their songs always echoed in my ears and I still had the urge to watch and listen again. Because of this I felt very confused and also suffered.

One day, I heard their new songs coming from outside, which grasped my heart immediately. I really wanted to know their updates, so I said to myself, “I’ll just check them out for one time. It doesn’t matter.” Therefore, I couldn’t wait to open up my cell phone and went online to search for all their latest tour dates and performances, and the newest album they released. Their cool dance movements accompanied with catchy and cool music made me feel they were awesome. I didn’t stop watching until dawn. After that, my head was hurting badly as if it were going to split open and I suddenly thought of how I had prayed to God saying that I would no longer follow celebrities, but this time I didn’t stand up to Satan’s seduction, went back to my old ways, and once again fell victim to Satan’s trickery. I deeply regretted that I hadn’t stood firm in my position, and thus I prayed to God immediately, repented to Him, and begged Him to help me overcome Satan’s temptations.

I read in the word of God, “While you are still immature of stature, you must do your utmost to give a wide berth to those things that can rot your heart and poison you. Why is that? Because you currently have no discernment, are foolish and very brash and arrogant. The positive things equipped within your heart are so few, and you have no reality of the truth. In spiritual terminology, you don’t have life or stature.” After reading God’s words, I understood that my stature was so small that I had no ability to resist Satan’s evil trends and thus I was easily lured by Satan and became caught in its deceitful schemes. I remembered how, because I followed celebrities, my normal life was disrupted and I was tortured to the point where I became something that was neither human nor demon. If I still did not repent, in the long run I would be in danger of being devoured by Satan. So, I swore an oath that I would get away from the trio and live a normal life, and could not let them occupy my heart or disrupt my life and sleeping pattern; I also resolved to read more of God’s words, gain the truth as my foundation, and overcome Satan’s seductions.

Awakening from my dream, I stepped onto the right path.

From then on, I often prayed to God, read His words, and consciously distanced myself from all the information about following celebrities. My conditions gradually improved.

One time, when I was waiting for the bus, I saw a poster advertising the trio’s new record on the billboard of the bus station, and immediately the scenes of them singing and dancing on stages played in my mind. At that time, I realized, “Satan is coming again to lure me and get me to distance myself from God. I cannot be caught out by its cunning schemes again.” And so, I silently called to God in my heart, “O God! I beg You to give me strength so that I can forsake my fleshly desires and live by Your words!” After my prayer, I felt greatly relieved and my heart became less excited than it had been.

After returning home I read these words from God, “Young people should not be without the truth, nor should they harbor hypocrisy and unrighteousness—they should stand firm in the proper stance. They should not just drift along, but should have the spirit to dare to make sacrifices and to struggle for justice and truth. Young people should have the bravery to not succumb to oppression by the forces of darkness and to transform the significance of their existence. … You should practice according to My words. In particular, young people should not be without the resolve to exercise discernment in issues and to seek justice and the truth. You should pursue all things beautiful and good, and you should obtain the reality of all positive things. You should be responsible toward your life, and you must not take it lightly.” In God’s words, I saw His demands and hope for us young people. God hopes that we don’t follow unrighteousness, don’t give free rein to ourselves or drift along, but instead we should have our vitality, seek all things just, beautiful, and good, cast off the decadent and depraved life, practice the truth, and live out a meaningful life. After that, every time I have the chance, I will read God’s words together with my mother. Both my study and life have returned to normal, and my spirit has improved greatly. Now I have come out from the pain of following celebrities and have felt the peace and sureness of living before God.