Hey,
Have you ever heard of Carl Lentz?
Up until not too long ago, he was the lead pastor at Hillsong Church in New York Cityā¦
And his tagline was, āPastor to the Famous and the Nameless.ā
That was actually a pretty apt taglineā¦
Because in addition to preaching to thousands of folks in person, and countless others onlineā¦
Folks like Justin Bieber, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Jay Z, Bono, Selena Gomez, Nick Jonas, and others all previously looked to Lentz as their spiritual leader.
A few months back though, all of that changedā¦š³
The fallout has been pretty swiftā¦
Bieber unfollowed himā¦š
He was fired from his position at Hillsong Churchā¦
And, frankly, the media has been having a field dayā¦
With reports and articles about Carlās āfall from graceā popping up regularly in NBC News, The New York Times, The NY Post, Vanity Fair, Variety, People, TMZ and more.
Personally, I sat next to Carl Lentz during a four-hour-long dinner in LA a little over a year agoā¦
And honestly, he was a pretty nice guy.
The context on that is that he was a member of the 100MM Mastermind that Joel Marion and Dan Fleyshman createdā¦
So I spent a whole weekend around the guyā¦
And watched him give a talk on stage.
Like I just mentioned, he seemed cool enoughā¦
Though at least one high-level marketer and friend of mine sniffed out something amiss right awayā¦
And told me that he thought that the Pastor was full of shit.
That same friend texted me last night pointing out all the stuff going on about Carl Lentzā¦
I texted back that he was āspot onāā¦
And then, that was about it.
Except not really, because here I am writing this blog post.
Well, the reason Iām writingā¦
The one word that keeps popping into my mind is āempathy.ā
It sucks the dude cheated on his wife (heās got two kids as well)ā¦
And there are reports that he was sexting with another women as wellā¦
Along with some stories of him being kind of arrogant and full of himself at times.
Thereās even a salacious story of him acting like a āwomanizing manwhoreā at Jennifer Lopezās private Super Bowl party last yearā¦
So again, not a good look.
And yet, be all that as it mayā¦
When I think about itā¦
What good comes from me taking pride, or glee, in another manās downfall?
What good does that do any of us?
I really believe that when we take pleasure in the downfalls of those on a pedestalā¦
Itās because it makes us feel better about ourselves, and our own shortcomings.
āWell see, he wasnāt that great after all. He was actually full of crap. He was a hypocrite. He was a douchebag.ā
Itās like yeah, all of those things are actually trueā¦
But why do we need to see others fail to feel better about ourselves, right?
This is something Iāve thought about for a whileā¦
And so I really try to practice empathy in these types of situationsā¦
I feel bad for Carly Lentz and I feel bad for his family.
The guy is just a human, like the rest of usā¦
Iām sure heās got his angels and his demonsā¦
And at some point, the demons started to win outā¦
Leading him astray.
Or hell, maybe he was always an a-holeā¦
I donāt knowā¦
But more likely, heās a sum of his entire lifeā¦
A product of good experiences and negative experiencesā¦
Of healthy relationships and toxic relationshipsā¦
Of altruistic thoughts, and lustful moments.
Like I said, heās a humanā¦
So rather than taking satisfaction in another manās life falling apartā¦
Iām just gonna pray for the guyā¦
And hope that he becomes a better man from this experience and that he comes out stronger and better both personallyā¦
And in his relationshipsā¦
As a result of everything that is happening to him.
ā SPG
P.S. If you want the copywriting application here, itās pretty obvious: empathy also makes you a better writer. The more you can understand others, and view different perspectives, the more you can connect with folks. So if you donāt care about bettering yourself, itās still worthwhile to practice empathy for the simple sake of improving your writing. And hey, who knows, maybe with practice youāll actually become more empathetic too.
P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.
