When people tend to look at celebrities: be it singers, actors, or anyone in the spotlight. If they follow them enough and read about them enough, many people think they know them. But many don't know what it took to get there. Multi-Grammy Award-winner, Kirk Franklin is no different.
Kirk admits to weaknesses. In fact, he says more people should be brave and admit their weaknesses to focus on their own recovery.
People often try to be superhuman when in fact they're just like the regular guy, Clark Kent, says Franklin. And according to the award-winning Gospel artist, there is nothing wrong with just being Clark Kent.
"It seems like it's a bad thing these days to admit weakness, to acknowledge your own lack of power to accomplish something on your own. It's the same when you think of how many lives could be saved if mainly men would stop fooling themselves, respond to the pain in their chest, or the lump in their neck and run to the doctor for a check up," he explained.
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It's difficult to admit weakness, Franklin said, because society places such a high standard on people, especially celebrities, sports figures, and politicians.
“I had a sister that had a real bad drug problem. She spent over a decade in prison — prostitution. So, we lived that life and it was a difficult life. I was 15 when my dude got killed and when he got killed is when I got closer to faith. That’s when I really just developed my own relationship with the Lord.”
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“Also at 15 I got a young lady pregnant, paid for an abortion, dropped out of school. For two years I was sleeping in a car. I kind of got into a little bit of trouble, I had to spend some nights locked down."
“There was incest in our family, as a kid. There was some abuse, I was a little boy. My little sister— there was some rape. There were some ugly images that we got introduced to as kids at about the age of 8. So from about the age of 8 to about 29, I struggled with that [pornography]. Not only pornography, but I was very promiscuous.”
“I was trying to get that love I didn’t get from my mom. I still know my mom. I think it’s worse when a kid is adopted and they still know their parents, versus when a kid is...
... adopted and they don’t know their biological [parents]. It’s almost like a sore that never heals. You’re always living with, ‘Why wasn’t I good enough for you?’ I would see my real mother every now and then. She would lie and say she was coming to get me and take me to the fair, take me to the carnival.”
But Franklin added that it is the dumbest, most dangerous thing in the world to consider. "The same people that we laugh at — and talk about when they fall — are the same people sometimes that someone could've helped before they fell... and took others along with them," he said.
He confessed that he is Clark Kent. He used to talk a lot on the phone with his female friends and meet them for lunch, and go to parties at award shows and obsess over his album charts.
"The things I mentioned above on their own are not sinful, but they are things in my life that I recognized I am not strong enough to do in my own power. I recognize my areas of weakness and acknowledge them," he explained.
Since he acknowledged his flaws and limitations, Franklin said that it opened up the door for the real Superman to save him: God.
"We can do nothing on our own. You are a weak parent, a needy CEO, a powerless father. But if we remember this daily, the power of the greatest hero of our times promises to come and save the day," he assured.
