Idols

The word "idols" or it's singular form "idol" has crept into common use such that it's nearly impossible to hear it or use it without visualizing an image or having a reaction.  In it's current modern context, it's usually associated with entertainment media.  We have teen idols, sports idols and of course American Idol.

And really, there's no getting around it, idols are always a problem.  The problem is this: all idols create lies both for the idol (in the case of human ones) and for the idol worshiper.

For human idols (sport figures, entertainers, et al.), this type of idolatry creates a host of well documented problems.  Whether drug or alcohol abuse, infidelity, public tirades or other horrors of front page news, being an idol is at the very least a substantial part of the life pain of the celebrity in question.  When you consider that all this is tied to both their personal lives and careers, often threatening both, it becomes clear that what society at large thinks of as a charmed life actually has more in common with an all consuming curse.

This is because of a lie that is intrinsic to accepting the idolatry of others.  Consider that over the course of your life you'll never live up to the praise of a moment or even a series of moments.  You're human.  You're a unique creation that combines the blessed and favored with the badly broken...and you also live in a broken neighborhood with  other broken souls.  Over time, the "badly broken" part will not be denied it's due.

Many ancient kings made the mistake of assuming that their kingship made them great, even to the point of being Gods.   The Biblical example of Nebuchadnezzar (as found in the book of Daniel)  is probably the great archetypal example.  The very very short version of this story is that by all accounts both Biblical and extra-Biblical, Nebuchadnezzar was a great king.   God steps in through a series of miracles and lets Nebuchadnezzar know who and what God is.  Nebuchadnezzar accepts this teaching for awhile.  At the end of the acceptance phase, Nebuchadnezzar makes statements of grandeur about himself, ignoring God altogether and almost immediately goes insane.

I don't think there can be a clearer picture of the painful and intolerable nature of self-idolization.  Intolerable that is, for all involved.  In the context of the story, Nebuchadnezzar steps so far away from both revealed reality and propriety, that he is no longer able or fit to live in either.  And even though it is God who strikes him, his insanity represents little more than the ratification of the break with reality and morality Nebuchadnezzar has already made by and in himself.  (For those who don't know or remember the story, Nebuchadnezzar is eventually chastened and restored.)

Idol worshipers incur the reverse polarity of the same issue.  Usually pain or ego (ego is often a disguise for pain) leads someone to seek something or someone they believe to be greater than themselves.  It's comforting to believe that there is someone out there who has it all, has it all together, or both.  And that maybe they can take care of us too or at least distract us from our daily grind.

The problem is that idols fail us.  They are not what they either seem or promise to be.  Thus, just as the self-idolizer encounters their own frailties and fallacies, so too does the idol worshiper stumble over misplaced love and allegiance.  In the end after the idol has failed, the idol worshiper is left broken, hollow and empty.  (Note that addictions, obsessions and unhealthy relationships can also be idolatry.)

There is only one response to idolatry:  Don't do it.  Don't idolize others, yourself, your own triumphs or your own pain and fear.  Don't give undue import to the successes or failures of others.  All these "graven images" will disappoint, some sooner, some later.  We must live our own lives as they were created by the God that spoke us.  Following God alone is both enough reward and challenge.  Accept and learn to love who you and I and everyone else were all created to be.  Accept and love the God who spoke us and speaks to us still.

Remember, idols will always let you down.  The work you put into them will eventually be destroyed. 

Better instead to press hard into the reality of the cross, relationships with those you find in it's shadow, share the peace of that with those who don't yet know it or understand it and seek love and rest in God.  None of that is free but none of the work of it is ever lost.