What's with the public these days? How do tabloid papers and websites that revel in celebrity mishaps manage to attract so much of our attention? This puerile interest in which actor was arrested for drunk driving, which investment banker is headed off in handcuffs, or which starlet entered rehab must be a sign of the decline of our civilization. Right?

Well, the trend isn't really all that new. Man's earliest stories, from Greek myths to Oedipus, through Shakespeare and up to Tom Wolfe, have often focused on how the mighty have fallen. Readers don't delve into the mistakes and foibles of everyday people with the same relish. It has always been more fascinating to us regular folk to discover that those who seem to have every advantage of fame and fortune can mess up even more royally than we.

So what happens to those who used to live the high life once the spotlight focuses on the newest flavor-of-the-day celebrity? What does the star do after rehab or the banker do after prison? Sometimes the experience is just the beginning of a long line of mistakes that spiral downward into a promising life unfulfilled. But every once in awhile, the experiences of those programs or punishments actually help someone turn his life around.

Sometimes, those mighty who have fallen actually rise from the depths. Perhaps it's through a 12-step program, where they learn to turn to a higher power, or through a discovery of Christian faith while they're in prison. Inevitably, such reform and renewal happens only after the perpetrator realizes that A) the world does not revolve around him, and B) he can't turn his life around on his own. At that point, he may finally turn to his faith or his family for the help he so desperately needs.

Of course, these are the stories we don't hear as often. They aren't as filled with lurid detail, and they don't give us that smug sense of superiority that we get from a famous face in a mug shot. Yet, when all is said and done, these inspirational Christian stories are probably the ones we ought to take more to heart. They are the ones we ought to take our life lessons from, and they certainly proffer more hope. They're just not likely to end up in the National Enquirer or on TMZ anytime soon.