I’ve been unable to escape a particular subject recently – so apologies if I end up writing at least a million blog posts on the same thing.
See, I am unable to escape the idea of ‘Idolatry’.
Which seems a bit weird in today’s context, because in the West we aren’t generally people who lend ourselves to fashioning little statues and worshiping them.
But I suppose the breadth of this concept of Idolatry, goes far beyond what we can so easily identify in other times or cultures. Because it is a very significant concept to think about – not because we necessarily make idols of out of things (because I would say that’s the most obvious form of idolatry in the western world) but because we make idols out of people and we make false idols when we entertain false ideas about God.
Spiritual formation is probably one of my favourite things to talk and learn about. How we have developed the ideas we have about spiritual things – it is so interesting, because I suppose until we slow down and look at things in the daylight, they can slunk by unnoticed and unquestioned.
One of the first courses they make you take at Laidlaw College (where I studied Christian Ministries) is formation. I loved it, because the whole point of it was to challenge what you thought about God and being a Christian, and where those ideas came from.
Recently, I’ve felt challenged by this because I’ve discovered more potatoes in the field of my Christian Faith. By potatoes, I mean like little knots that I had no idea were lurking beneath the surface.
But there are potatoes, and many of them recently, have been challenging my idea of the nature of God.
It becomes very easy to develop a view of God where he is a transcendent (that’s fancy for powerful-yet-distant) and super concerned with my spiritual life yet in a constant state of disapproval over my life choices.
It can also become pretty easy to view God as this half-best-buddy-half-agony-aunt entity that is not overly impressed at our life choices, but gives us a little knuckle rub on the head and hopes we’ll do better next time.
Or even seeing Jesus as this slightly spacy saviour who glides through the scriptures making really obscure comments about having water and bread people ‘don’t know about’ and seems incapable of answering a straight forward question.
Except God isn’t disappointed – he loves powerfully.
But he isn’t the agony-Aunt-Bestie – he demands rightousness.
And he isn’t this Spacy Saviour – he made very deliberate steps recorded in the Gospels and was enormously strategic.
So it brings us to the question: are we viewing God correctly, or are there potatoes in the field?
A conversation I was a part of recently with a bunch of ladies was sort of about this subject – but more over, and probably what I wanted to write about here.
How we have this innate desire to give people in our lives the place of ‘god’.
I guess we were talking about how it can be easy in Christian circles to put a huge amount of pressure on a person to be perfect.
Pastor, Youth Pastor, Worship Leader, or even just general Christian-Cool-Person that we respect.
We expect they will never stumble, struggle, wrestle, or change – and it isn’t right.
It isn’t right because people are people, and fallible.
It isn’t right because it isn’t fair to place that level of pressure on an individual.
And it especially isn’t right because in light of these two points – those people are not God.
They are following God, just as we are.
And while yes, we should strive to be righteous and holy, and yes, we should take any position of authority, leadership and influence seriously – it is only natural that we will be let down, and we will let others down.
The issue, however, is that if we are let down by people we have turned into little gods – it will impact our faith far more deeply than it ought to.
I’ve seen and heard of many scenarios where Christians have walked away from their faith, disappointed, because of hurts and disappointments.
And look, it isn’t right we should be hurt, but we must learn to hold it right.
An example I shared with the girls the other day (when we were having these chats) was the story of Moses, ascending The Mountain to meet with God and receive the ten commandments.
This is a special story to me because my dad has it depicted on a sweatshirt with an old fashioned image of Moses standing with the ten commandments in front of the people of Israel with the words ‘Behave Or I’ll Hit You’ beneath.
But I think of this story, and how weird it was that Moses was only gone a short time before the people of Israel started to try to put something else in the place of God.
We do this I think.
We put Pastors, and Leaders, and Worship Leaders, and other Christian Pop Culture Figures – or even our own parents perhaps? In the place of god – by this definition, I mean the entity we hang all our hopes and understanding of Faith, Spirituality and Self on.
Our Faith, Spirituality and Self should never hang on anyone or anything but God.
We must learn to hold our hurts and our disappointments.
Being straight with you – some of the worst things said and done to me were said and done by Christians, often under the guise of being the ‘right’ thing to do, or even supported by theological concepts or scripture.
Is that okay? No it isn’t.
When I was in intermediate school the Senior Pastor of the church I was a part of (that no longer exists) had an affair with the Childrens’ Pastor and took off to the United States with her and her children.
Is that okay? Certainly not.
Is it biblical to excuse or justify this behaviour? No way.
Did it shake my faith? Not a chance.
Because that man was not god. God is God.
This is only one example – and to be fair the one I have the most distance from. But I share it because it was a learning point for me, an instance that taught me that only God is God, and everyone else is basically like me.
Fallible.
There is something in us that looks to fill the void.
We cannot walk with God in the garden as Adam and Eve did, we are still this side of eternity.
As a result, we seem to fashion these golden calves.
We become people who place unrealistic expectation on those in some type of position or authority.
We become people who believe the prayer of another is stronger than the silent, desperate prayer we pray over ourselves.
We ask another to seek God for our situation, rather than asking him ourselves.
That isn’t to say it isn’t okay to have another pray for you (I think of Aaron, holding up Moses’ arms in Exodus 17) or that it isn’t okay to ask someone to seek God for something in regards to your situation.
But only God is God.
And that is a pretty scary and yet wonderful thing. Because we don’t need to cave in to our innate need to make something physical that we can see and talk to, we have God.
I’m a fiend when it comes to venting to someone else before I even think to pray – and I’m trying to change that.
That’s my own little way that I’ve made a little golden calf out of others where I should be seeking God.
When something catastrophic (or less catastrophic) happens the first thing I do is call someone, or text someone or something.
And its because they’re tangible, physical, they’re something I can see!
But in all honesty I’d be better off praying, and I know that.
So I’m digging the potato out of the field of my spiritual life and formation.
And I’m inviting you today to do the same
brighteyesbigworld 