American Idols
My encounter with Monday Night Football reminded me that sports enthusiasts are even called “fans,” derived from the Latin word fanaticus, which means “inspired by a deity, frenzied, from [the word] fanum [which means] temple.” Certainly, the immeasurable and infinite splendor of God is more thrilling than any fourth-quarter touchdown pass. But if we compared the emotion in an NFL stadium on Sunday afternoon with the fervor in a church on Sunday morning, we might be surprised.
Please don’t read me wrong. I’m not trying to be a religious whacko who suggests people shouldn’t appreciate life. I enjoy sports, and I had a blast at the Monday night game! I’m just surprised at how quickly some good, less obvious things can begin to impact my outlook and heart more than the good news of Jesus. If these good things go unchecked and are allowed to grow in unhealthy ways, they can become something else and nudge God from first place in our hearts.
And it’s not just sports or romance. Idols can be found anywhere—in the basement or kitchen or at work. Even puttering in the garage or scrapbooking can become an idol when it consumes extreme amounts of our time and pushes things like faith to little more than an afterthought. (But I’d suggest you work on your own life before pointing out what you see as your spouse’s idols!)
The problem with idolatry is not only that we are focusing on something (or someone) other than God. Much of idolatry comes back to self-preoccupation and “self-worship.” Our present social media-obsessed culture is often described as “narcissistic.” This word comes to us thanks to Narcissus, a young man in a Greek myth who was so good looking that he couldn’t take his eyes off himself—literally! When he looked into a pool of water and saw his reflection, he was so enamored with it that he just sat and stared. He finally starved himself to death because he refused to take his gaze off his own handsome reflection.
How do we know if we’re engaging in this kind of self-focus to the point that it clouds our God-focus? How do we know if we’re becoming too preoccupied with ourselves and nudging God out of first place? These are tough questions. When we regularly react to criticism with rage, shame or the tendency to humiliate the person criticizing, we should ask why. When we take advantage of other people to achieve our own goals, it points to what’s going on in our hearts. When we have excessive feelings of self-importance, exaggerate our achievements and talents and become preoccupied with fantasies of success, power or ideal love, these are red flags. When we Google ourselves all the time and obsess about the number of friends or followers we have in our social media presence, it can be a symptom of a greater issue. Usually, we are making it about us when we have unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment (also known as entitlement), need constant attention and admiration and disregard the feelings of others. Pursuing our own selfish goals, we begin to lose the ability to feel compassion for others.
In our culture we’re encouraged to lean into these behaviors because we spend a lot of time trying to ensure that others notice us. We wear the right clothes, live in the cool neighborhood, drive the latest hybrid sports car and name-drop online. We work hard to create a successful brand for ourselves, to be important, successful, attractive, chic and glamorous.
However, God challenges us to realize we were not created to be made much of, but to make much of him. At our core, we’re not created for fame. We’re made to make God famous, designed to love him with all of our heart, without leaving room for would-be idols. And until we realize God rescued us for his fame and not our own, we’ll miss the ultimate purpose for life, which is him.
We are found when we realize our center is outside ourselves and our achievements, in God himself. David Powlison explains, “God never accepts me ‘as I am.’ He accepts me ‘as I am in Jesus Christ.’ The center of gravity is different. The good news does not allow God’s love to be sucked into the vortex of our lust for acceptability and worth in and of itself. Rather it radically decenters people—what the Bible calls ‘fear of the Lord’ and ‘faith’—to look outside themselves.” Turning to God and looking beyond ourselves puts us on a pathway to more pleasure, not less! In God’s presence is endless pleasure. Where idols ultimately kill pleasure, God fulfills it.
Gomer didn’t seem to comprehend this any better than we do. Hosea offered her stability, security and love that would have met many of the core needs in her life. But again and again, she took a shortcut to that fulfillment and continued the cycle of unfaithfulness. She substituted sex for genuine love. She exchanged the cheap thrill of being desired by a stranger for the substantive joy of being known and appreciated inside and out by someone committed to her.
She traded the foundation of security that comes in facing one’s past, making restitution, and receiving forgiveness for the vehement denial that comes from someone blinded by their own sin. Gomer just kept slamming the door on her past, and on her painful emotions, by living completely in the adrenaline-fueled chaos of the now. Too often, I’m afraid we make similar substitutions.
The Real Thing
It’s become pretty common to find substitutes in every area of our life today. Living in Vegas, I can go to the strip and think I’m in Paris, Venice or New York just based on the landmarks and opulent décor of a variety of casinos, all of which are nice substitutes for the real places. If I go to Costco and they’re out of the sale item I want, they’ll give me a substitute for the same price. For seafood lovers, there’s even crabtastic premium imitation crab. (Now, that’s scary!)
While substitutes are sometimes necessary and acceptable, spiritual alternatives never satisfy. If we want to experience the abundant life Jesus told us he came to bring, then we must accept no substitutes. We’re called to return our hearts to the one who loves us like no other, our creator—God.
So how do we stay focused on the real thing? One practice I’ve found helpful in dethroning idols is a gut check. Now I’m not talking about looking in a full-length mirror and sucking in your midsection, but rather pausing to see where your heart is on a regular basis. I’m talking about the kind of gut check in which you stop and consider your motives, purpose and ambitions. The kind of self-assessment that reveals what you’re chasing and why.
I recently lost one of the greatest men I have ever known in my life, my father. He was from a family that didn’t have much, from the other side of the tracks, as he would say. Dropping out of high school to serve in World War II, he lied about his age to enlist just as many of his friends did. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and in Germany as a master sergeant in the Army and a tank commander. He committed his life to Jesus and found him faithful even in the horror of war. He went on to become a small business owner and a remarkable man of character.
In the hospital before he passed away, he was in a lot of pain, in and out of awareness. He would look up and say, “Well, it’s about time we wrap this up.” I knew what he was getting at. At one point he kept being shocked by his heart defibrillator, and he mistakenly thought it was what was keeping him alive. He sat up after getting zapped and said, “You get that heart doctor in here now to turn this thing off. I paid him a lot of money and I should be dead by now!” (Yep, that’s my dad.)
The last time I talked to him, I went in and held his hand, and he looked at my sister and me, smiled, and said, “You’re good kids. I love you. I’ll see you on the other side. I’m going for a walk in the sunshine.” Through tears I told him how much he meant to me. I shared that I loved him deeply and agreed I’d see him soon. I thanked him for being an awesome father and man of God, and I committed to him that I’d try to follow in his footsteps as a dad and a man. He closed his eyes and that was the last time we ever spoke. A few days later, he passed peacefully at hospice.
Losing my father brought a lot of things back into perspective for me. It caused me to reflect on my life and do a major gut check. Seeing him at the end of his life reminded me that when I get to the same place in my own life, nobody will care about attendance numbers at the church I led or how many books I’ve sold or interviews I’ve done. Nobody will care about so much of what I can get caught up in with life.
What really matters on your deathbed? Your relationship with God and others; it’s a short list.
A gut check grounds you and helps you zero in on what may be coming before God in your life. Certainly a loss or crisis has a way of forcing you to consider what is most important. Yet you don’t have to wait for something like this; you can reflect and pause and consider what’s coming between you and God each day. On the other side of this reflection is a return to God’s fulfillment.
