I passed by the nail parlor the other day, the one down by our supermarket, and when I glanced in the window, I happened to see a little Buddha altar they have behind the reception desk -- the place is owned by a couple of ladies from Southeast Asia. Anyway, there they were, lighting an incense stick and placing a couple of oranges and a banana at its base. It’s one of the things you do with an idol -- you make little concessions, you make little gestures, you keep up a flow of things to appease, to keep the connection, to make points, to make the wooden statue happy. And it made me think...
Sometimes we do the same with the God of the Bible. We treat him like an idol. St. Augustine pointed out that we are supposed to rejoice in God and use the things of the world. But we get it backward. We prefer to use God and rejoice in the things of the world. That’s what it means to make God an idol, a comfortable deity that we use. Much like that little wooden statue of Buddha at the nail parlor. An idol is something we appease to serve our wishes and we do that with God when we strip Him of his glory and majesty, when we denude Him of the demands He makes on us and, instead... we make demands on Him, we idolize Him. You know how it goes... you make little concessions to God, little gestures, you keep up a flow of things to appease Him, to keep the connection, to make points, all to make God happy. It’s a way of using God.
The pieces of fruit and the incense that those women place every day at the base of the wooden statue... well, it’s a way of “keeping him happy.” After all, an idol is something you manipulate.
Frankly, I’m convinced this is why God permits hardships in our lives -- I mean heavy hardships. Suffering keeps us from making God an idol. When we are going through serious problems, real trials, the first thing that goes is this thing about manipulating God, trying to appease Him with our little gestures of obedience. All that goes out the window, and God, through our pain and tears, suddenly becomes what He has been all along: Our great, majestic, and awesome; the God to whom we must bow... and bow low. When we are going through hard times, bewildering times, we no longer view God as a comfortable deity. We see Him as He really is: high and lifted up, exalted above every other name, every other God, putting to shame all the idols we cherish in our hearts -- He’ll have non other but Himself and He will accept us, not on our terms, but His.
God doesn’t want to be your idol. He will have no other gods before Him. God won’t be put on the floor behind a receptionist’s desk. No, He wants your heart. AND He wants all of it.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
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