As I write this post, the US is once again in division. This time it is over how professional sports players should respond to our national anthem and our flag. I am not here to support one side over the other. I have my opinions as I’m sure you have yours.
What I would like to draw our attention to is the fact that sometimes our ideals can actually become idolatry. This is something I’ve been chewing on lately.
Let me give you a “silly” example (but maybe not so silly!): I have a high regard for good customer service. I have worked many hospitality jobs, and I feel that those in the service industry should…well…serve! I genuinely appreciate those who go out of their way for their clients and find it highly grating when others do not.
I’m not sure why this value is so strong for me. It has caused some angst over the years, but most recently when I was on the phone to my mobile carrier because of an error that they had made which caused my phone number to be “lost” and my account to be canceled. I am choosing not to name names here!
After about 4 failed attempts during separate phone calls to try to fix their problem, it still had not been resolved. The fifth time around, I was pretty annoyed. Visibly annoyed (if they could have seen me). I felt justified in treating the girl on the other end of the line badly because of this mobile phone carrier’s poor customer service. I knew that I should be patient and respectful, but in that moment, I decided that my ideal of good customer service was more important than God’s higher ideal of treating another human being (made in His image, mind you) with respect.
The Holy Spirit began to uncover this to me, and I began to wonder if I did this in other areas. Could it be possible that every time I justified unloving actions, I was really setting my own value up as an idol above God’s highest value of love?
I’m suggesting yes.
So I became mindful of my own responses, my own triggers. What values were I placing above God’s highest? (It’s not that these values are bad within themselves. Many of them are good and and even godly values. It’s just when they usurp the foundational value of loving others that they become idols.)
Other idols I began to see in my life:
Efficiency: when someone takes longer than I think they should at a simple task, I justify impatience.
Convenience: when someone’s actions make my life inconvenient, I justify complaint.
Tardiness: when someone is running behind schedule, I justify judgement and annoyance.
Disrespect: when someone disrespects what I hold dear, I justify criticism and disdain (really these are “mild” fruits of hatred).
Wow, Holy Spirit! Good work. These values are cultural and familial values that I’ve grown up with. Believe me, not everyone in the world holds all of these same ideals.
I needed to repent of idolatry in my own life. I had placed these values over God’s command to love. Love no matter what.
Idols can be whatever ideals we put over God’s highest ideal to love.
It does not mean that I no longer care about customer service or efficiency or being on time, but it means that when I encounter it, it takes a knee (really no pun intended- just the first phrase that came into my mind!) to God’s highest value of loving (respecting) people. Even in the midst of poor customer service, inefficiency and inconvenience, I am still able to love. (This is actually freedom.)
It also does not mean that I don’t speak truth. It does not mean that I never confront. It does not mean that I cannot disagree. But it does mean that in all of my truth-speaking, confrontational disagreements, I must act like this: patient, kind, humble, gentle, honoring to others, not seeking only to make myself heard, not easily angered, not delighting if my opponent gets proved wrong, always hoping for his/her best, and protecting his/her reputation.
And this does not just include how we speak or act, this includes our thought life as well. There is no difference to God. We are what we think.
If we cannot act, think, and speak in the way I listed above (which are the guidelines laid out for us in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, of how love acts), then we have a problem.
That problem is called sin.
It’s pride. It’s thinking we know better than God. And that He must have actually meant that the greatest command is to be on time for meetings and not really to love.
We need to call a spade a spade, confess what we find to be true in our own lives, and by the grace of God, turn away from it. This is called repentance. Ask the Holy Spirit of God to shed light on it, to see it how He sees it, so that we don’t find it appealing any longer. And then we’ll be free.
Free from what? Free from the tyranny of our own ideals. Holding people to a standard that God doesn’t hold them to. Taking His place as judge and jury. Forgetting the many standards of which we daily fall short.
True wisdom is peaceable, gentle and reasonable (James 3:17). If peace is not king of our discussions or arguments, then they are not wise. If we cannot confront without gentleness, then we are not in step with the Spirit. If we are not open to reason and hearing another person out, than we are operating out of our own agendas.
May I suggest a little repentance? It’s good for the soul. And it will make us a little easier to be around too! 😉
Let’s get free from our idols so that we can have joy and peace. Let’s be open to the idea that not everyone sees the things that we value the exact same way that we do. Let’s do a little more listening and a little less talking.
If the God of the universe could leave literal Paradise and humbly serve broken, sinful, proud, ignorant, arrogant, inefficient people (us), I think we can probably manage a little more consideration for the customer service girl on the other end of the line.
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