The Value of Idols
11/10/13
It is well known that a part of humanity includes titles,
gifts, memories, and many other issues that fill up our minds and hearts. We also are familiar with some of these
issues are held in a higher standard than others so much so that we surround
ourselves with the issues and use them as a focusing point for our lives. We must contend that these tightly held
issues become a center piece within our hearts and represent a stability and
security measure that if left in place for a certain amount of time they become
a part of our defensive mechanism and thus an idol. The question remains if we really understand
just how much value we place on these issues effectively places a price tag
upon these items and sometimes that price is more precious than gold.
There are many references to idols that mankind can refer
to including human figures when we are growing up to the amount of money that
we have in our bank account. I remember
when I was a kid we lived in Cleveland, Texas which was just about thirty
minutes north of Houston. This part of my
life occurred in the early 80s and was very influential in my mind. Houston was becoming one of the major cities
within the United States and was growing at a rapid pace, even measurable on a
weekly basis. With being a major city,
Houston also had a few universities and small community colleges that were
present within its city limits and one of the larger universities was named the
University of Houston.
The University of Houston was a large school and it was a
member of one of the larger university conferences in the country. For the most part the UH campus and its
student population was considered to be a football school, which living in
Texas this should come as no surprise.
However, during this period of time the University of Houston became
well known for its basketball team which had risen up to the number one spot in
the nation. They even had their own
unique and special title for their team and they were on television almost
every night in some manner.
The city and surrounding areas quickly fell in love with
the team and placed many high expectations upon their heads. Losing became a thing of the past and it was
considered to be just a matter of time before they won the national
championship. During one of these years
the basketball team had taken a trip to play the Syracuse University basketball
team. Syracuse had a fairly decent team
and should have posed no major problems for Houston. However, things did not go so well for
Houston and they ended up losing the game and were very disappointed with their
performance, plus losing to a team that one should have handled easily never
settles well with anyone.
I remember the sports casters being in total disbelief
that Houston could lose to such a team as Syracuse and how much damage was this
going to cause to their reputation and there were so many unanswered questions
that many people had as to why they could have let this happen. Some people were even crying on the footsteps
of the basketball arena because of the utter disappointment that was being
experienced. I too was deeply saddened
and even though I did not cry when they lost I knew that somehow my insides
were shaken a bit. At the time I had no
idea of what this meant to me but over time I began to understand that that
team and what they stood for had engrained itself into my life that it had
changed how I looked at some things around me, how I looked at myself and a
certain amount of pride I had through that image of the basketball team.
The trip home for the basketball team was very hard and
very long. Coming off of a game that
hardly anyone expected to lose, the attitudes of the players and coaches was
grim at best. The flight home was late
at night and the entire team had flown on one flight, took up a great portion
of the plane’s seating. How do I know
this about the team? Well, my dad had
just returned from a trip overseas and was on the same connecting flight with
the basketball team from Houston. Dad
said it was a miserable flight because the atmosphere in the plane was
dim. He knew who he was flying with but
really did not say much because he had heard that they had lost their game so
he kept to himself. The funny part of
this story is that if you know my dad you will remember that he is pretty tall
and can stand up for himself if needed; however, the star player for the team
sat right behind him on the plane and kicked his seat all the way home but dad
never had the guts to stand up and say something to him, he just let him kick
his eat for the next three hours or so.
So, you can imagine the look on my face when I recognized each one of
them as they exited the plane into the airport terminal. In fact, my dad had been gone for almost two
weeks and the first thing I said to him was “do you know who you were flying
with?”
As I look back on those years the value of that team and
what it meant to the city of Houston was almost invaluable. The newspapers were filled with articles
concerning each minute of every game. The
sports commentators would continually talk about on and off campus coming and
goings of each basketball player, even their grades were a public issue that
almost everyone knew about. Billboards
lined the streets and highways with the team logo and their adopted group’s
name. The city had gone nuts for this
team and everywhere you turned the city’s love and idolization of the team was
apparent; there was nothing that the city wouldn’t do for them.
Gold is the most valued commodity in the world. It is considered the most precious and
stabile element that humans can place their trust upon. Its value for the most part is steady and can
withstand many fluctuations within any country’s economy if needed. It is an impure element that must be heated
in order to get rid of its impurities and once this process is complete its
worth skyrockets and can secure a nation’s finances for a long time to come.
Over the past few decades we have learned of gold’s
mining and have discovered that many people’s lives have been affected by this
process. The will to dig for gold and to
bring up its ore has infected thousands of businesses all in the name of having
more than the person down the street. This
process has angered some and for others it is of no concern to them, but it
does affect each of our lives in a peculiar way. Gold has become the threshold of our economy
and has even been backed by this brown yellowish clump. One can imagine what it will do to the human
ego when scads of it are adorned on and upon our bodies. It serves as a status symbol to others and can
speak volumes about our lives without even verbally communicating with one
another.
We place huge insurance policies on is worth just in case
someone has the idea of trying or succeeding in taking it from our personal
storage place. We even have jewelers
mold gold into a specific shape or pattern in order to please our wants and
desires and many people throughout the world use gold as a symbol of covenant
between two people when they become one.
Countries use gold to give gifts to visiting dignitaries or gestures of
forgiveness for hard occurrences between nations. My parents went to Russia many years ago and
danced in St Catherine’s Palace where gold once lined the entire walls. Humans can use gold for almost anything they
wish, so of course it is precious.
The process in which we obtain this precious metal from
the ground is just as hard as it is to part with it when it no longer serves
its purpose. Drilling processes far deep
into the ground proves to be the only way to bring to the surface this mass of
element we all crave to have and it costs many lives each year in order to
provide a certain ounce of security into our lives. But at what price do we pay for such a luxury
or contentment? To what lengths will we
travel to obtain this valued element and to hold it within the confines of our
houses? Will we hold its value to an
unprecedented level in our hearts that once we obtain a few ounces that our
desires to have more increase far greater than what we expected? For it is not too long that we find ourselves
obsessing about how much we have and how much was might have this time next
year or ten years from now.
We find ways of trying to acquire more gold within our
possessions and base our happiness on our new found ways of living. We join groups that share the same ideas
about gold as we do and our life’s focus becomes centered on pleasing our
desire for this element. Our faith turns
from a solid foundation into a quest for more, more, more. Gold becomes the topic of our conversations and
we eat, sleep and breathe of its meaning within our lives. It consumes inch of our being and yet if
another person looks at us they might even know what our obsession has become,
but that part of our life will noticeably change within a scripted amount of
time.
We have watched movies and read books about how a rich
person suddenly becomes broke and has nothing to claim as their own any
longer. The work projects them being
heavily distraught and almost violent in tone and manner. Now even though this is portrayed in a movie
or in a book, the reactions are real and we have witnessed some of these
actions on the news recently. This type
of situation should wake us up enough to realize what is actually at stake in
our lives and how much damage any idol can become if we allow it to take hold.
I have used gold and a basketball team as examples in
this article. But what one needs to do
is to realize that anything can become an idol within our life. It does not matter what the object is, it can
gain access to your heart and spirit and our enemy will cause that item to
become an idol within your life. Once it
has a foothold in your life it can grow and eventually take the focus of your
spiritual and physical eyes away from the world around you. This is when our enemy will then persuade you
to grab a hold of your habit even more so that it becomes fully intertwined
within your life to the point where you believe that you have to have it in
order to survive. It does not matter
what substance or element we are talking about, it can even be a sports team.
There is a reason that God said that He was a jealous God
and not to have any other gods before Him.
Having a habit or idol so heavily engrained into your life that it
actually takes control of your daily activities may seem like a harmless idea but
in reality it is a very destructive pattern that if allowed to thrive within
you it will destroy everything around you that means something to your
life. There is no sacred ground when it
comes to competing with an idol in your life, it demands everything from you
and give others nothing in return. An
idol does not represent a symbiotic relationship it only provides a parasitic
one. Now, do you understand why our
Creator deems Himself to be a jealous God?
It is not for His selfish reasons but for us to understand what type of
separation idols cause between Him and us.
It is true that the value of an idol within our lives is
priceless and cannot be measured. On every
level an idol can represent the life and death of that individual, yet we
continue to allow them to rule our lives.
You do not have to be a rich person to have idols you can have
absolutely nothing of monetary value and still be filled with idols within your
life and be in the same situation as anyone else in this world. It is common for us to hold our likes and dislikes
close to our heart but look at the potential for idols and the walls that each
one of those concepts brings to our inner sanctum. We play a dangerous game when it comes to the
concept of idols and they are present on every level in our society. Idols are bought and sold continuously and
are available to anyone who wishes to purchase them and for a cheap price when
one stops and thinks about it. There is nothing
wrong with wanting things or even obtaining them, but when they become the
center of our attention it is at this time when we need to recognize their
destructive powers.
God recognizes when we allow potential items to become
idols within our lives. It is the job of
our enemy to shade our views on this matter and to try and get us to ignore the
impending crisis. Idols serve nothing
but to provide a separation from our Creator.
They wrap themselves within our hearts and hide our hearts from the one
who can protect us from all harm. We need
to hold tight to the values of those things that close the separation gap
between man and God for when we complete this truth then the treasure of God’s
love for mankind can be spread amongst each person who walks the face of the
earth. Take the time to examine your
heart and allow God to show you what idols are present within your life. Restoration of your heart’s true capability
will be the reward of the loss of idolatry along with peace and contentment
through God.
DLB
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