Getting Rid of Our Human Idols
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”
1 John 5:21
When I was young I had many idols.
No, these idols weren’t anything like the idols in the Old Testament: golden cows, etc. These idols were human beings.
When I was in elementary school, I experienced my first major involvement in human idolatry. I idolized The Beatles. As I grew older, I idolized a greater number of rock musicians, movie stars and other celebrities.
I was in my 20s when I came to Christ. Upon reading what the Scriptures said about the problem of having idols, I immediately began to work on that problem. But the thing was, my solution to this problem was to replace my sectarian idols with Christian idols. So, instead of having sectarian musicians as idols, I had Christian musicians as idols.
I started working as a newspaper reporter at about this time. Doing this work, I had occasion to meet many people who would be considered celebrities. I soon discovered that though they were rich and famous and idolized by thousands, they were just “folks.”
In my youth I had many idols who were sports figures. One of them was Kent Benson, who helped lead Indiana University to the NCAA basketball championship in 1976. Kent was the first pick in the NBA draft after his senior season.
Lo and behold, a major national magazine took me up on my offer to do a magazine article about Kent. At the time, he was living in a small apartment in Bloomington, IN., and, except for a fishing boat out in the parking lot, he had few of the trappings of fame and fortune.
I quickly discovered that Kent was/is just “folks.” (though a very big “folk” at 6-10). I enjoyed listening to him talk about his love for fishing and about his relationship with God and his Christian faith. Within 20 minutes of the interview, I forgot that I was talking with someone who had been my idol. We still keep in touch all of these years later.
In time, I began to meet many of my “Christian idols.” For the most part, they were different than I had imagined them to be. Like me, they had/have “clay feet” (which comes with being human) and some had/have very surprising human imperfections. One thing that amazed me when I began to meet my Christian idols is that many of them appear to be a bit antisocial. They don’t seem to like people very much. I imagine this comes from years of a having people want things from you, and want to have their picture taken with you, and want you to listen to all of their dreams and trials and tribulations.
The lesson in all of this is that God is not pleased when we make other people our idols - even Christian people. Having an idol of human flesh is to place that person between oneself and God. The Lord wants nothing standing between Him and us.
God never tires of listening to our dreams and to our trials and tribulations. He’s never antisocial. He is God and He never changes.
And, here’s something else to ponder: In the Book of Matthew, Jesus said He especially has a home in the lives of those He called “the least of these, my brethren.” Christ also said that “the last shall be first (in heaven),” etc. etc.
My wife teaches severely mentally handicapped children. In God’s pecking order, they are much closer to His heart than all of our famous and wealthy human idols.
But no one asks for their autographs.