Life and Idols

We all live for something.  Everyone has some god or idol that they chase after or look after with meticulous care, whether it's fame, fortune, pleasure, cars, video games, books, music, or the only true God.  Even desirable traits like attractiveness, charm, and leadership skills can be idols.  The most common understanding of "idols" is that they are things that come between us and God, things that we value more highly than getting to know our heavenly Father.  But as I was going through the Freshley leadership devotional for this week (and actually for two weeks ago because there was something I missed that I wanted to go back to), God showed me another meaning of the word idol.  An idol is something that you live for—it's your reason for living.  If your life goal is to become famous, that's the only reason you live; everything you do will be for the sole purpose of becoming famous, and once you're famous, everything you do will be to maintain that fame.  Even if you lose all your possessions, it won't faze you as long as you're still famous.  If you live for wealth wealth, you live only to become rich; you devote all your time and energy to gaining, saving, flaunting, and maintaining your wealth, and nothing else.  Even if your relative dies, you'll be okay as long as you have your money.  If your appearance is your idol, you live to be attractive, and everything you do will be to become as attractive as possible.  As long as you look good, everything will be alright, no matter what happens; but if you don't like how you look, you'll never be satisfied with anything.

The question from two weeks ago that I wanted to go back to was this: What does it mean that your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)?  I wanted to put off that question because it seemed easy at first, but when I finally got to it, I realized how difficult it was to answer it.  So I didn't answer it.  But now God is starting to answer the question for me.  Our lives become hidden with Christ in God when we begin living for Him and nothing else.  As long as we have Christ, nothing can steal our joy from us; if we feel distant from Jesus, we will do anything and stop at nothing to get closer to Him.  When we idolize earthly things, we hide our lives in those things.  If Satan can damage your idol in some way, he will gain complete control over you.  But when we hide our lives in Christ—when Jesus is all we need and all we want—Satan has no power over us because God cannot be conquered.  No matter how hard he attacks the idols of our past, he can never take our life, our reason for living.  He can try to take Jesus from us all he wants, but he will never be able to, so our lives are safe in Christ.  We live for Christ, so we live forever.

When I wrote that last sentence in my notes as I was going through the devotional, it hit me: our God/god, who/what we live for, determines our final destination in eternity.  That seems simple and obvious, but it seemed really profound to me.  If we live for something that's perishing, we will perish with it; if we live for something eternal, we will live forever.  Only Jesus is eternal, so if we live for Him, emulating His life and seeking to dwell in His presence through prayer and worship, we will live forever in heaven.  We live to be with Him, so that's what we get.  But if we live for fame, fortune, attractiveness, etc., which are all temporary, we will die along with our idols.  Even if your idol is a Christian who will live forever with Christ, if you are not consciously living to glorify God, you are only idolizing that person's earthly life, and all earthly life will pass away.  We will only live as long as our gods.  If your god is temporary, your life will be temporary; but if your God is everlasting, you will never die (the second death in hell, that is).

I feel like my words can't quite capture the depth of this discovery.  Maybe it's because it's 6am and I haven't gotten any sleep.  But whatever the reason, I'll end with this: Your life on earth will show where you will be going for eternity.  If you live for a temporary idol, it will be clear by your speech and behavior.  But if Jesus really is your God and you love Him with your life, you will live as if you are already with Him in heaven, because you kind of are.  After all, if Satan has no power to take away your joy in Christ now, this life is really not that different to you than the next.