 Spiritual: October 21, 2015 Issue [#7283] |
  Spiritual
This week: Idols Edited by: Jeff  
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"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.
To one without faith, no explanation is possible."
-- Thomas Aquinas
Spirituality Trivia of the Week: To date, The Bible has currently been fully translated into 531 languages, and partially translated into 2,883 languages. With 16 million native speakers, the Zhuang language from China is currently the most widespread language without a translation. Wycliffe Bible Translators (est. 1942) is an organization dedicated to translating and delivering The Bible to people around the world in a language they understand.
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IDOLS
I haven't edited this Spirituality Newsletter in a while, so naturally I decided to ease back into things with a weighty and problematic topic.  
I chose the topic of idols and idolatry because I think it's something that affects every one of us, regardless of our religion, geography, age, or disposition. An idol is simply an object of extreme devotion; something that is potentially worshipped as a god or in place of a god. And while there's a tendency to assign that kind of problematic obsession to things that are clearly bad - alcoholism, drug use, uninhibited sexuality, greed to the point of immorality, etc. - isn't it true that we can be extremely devoted to or prioritize some things in our lives even without them being full-blown addictions in a clinical sense? You don't have to be an alcoholic to regular drink so excessively that you're painfully hungover the next morning, or to prioritize physical gratification to the point that you're willing to cheat on your significant other if the opportunity presents itself. And even looking past the big idols we're all familiar with, how many of us are influenced by or even change the way we live our lives based on what our family and/or friends think of our jobs, what our coworkers think of the car we drive, what the neighbors think of the house we own, etc.?
I think it's fair to ask, What's the most important thing in your life?
And follow it with, Is that thing worth prioritizing over everything else?
If that important thing in your life is something positive (your God, your family, your health... although two of those three things can also be idols if you obsess over them too much), it's easier to recognize the other idols on your life. It may not be easy to ignore them or say no to them every time they present themselves, but it's easier. If you constantly remind yourself that the most important thing in your life is your family, it's easier to resist the advances of a coworker or stranger. If you constantly remind yourself that the most important thing in your life is your health, it's easier to resist crushing an entire tub of Ben & Jerry's whenever you receive bad news. And if you constantly remind yourself that the most important thing in your life is your God or your faith, it's easier to resist material temptations that can only promise temporary or limited satisfaction compared to whatever you believe happens to you in the afterlife.
But what if that important thing in your life is something negative? It may not even seem like a negative at first. My farther, for example, is very protective of our family and extremely concerned about financial security. He's a great dad and I love him dearly, but I also see how anguished he is with these things, often to the point of taking a toll on his own well-being (he rarely sleeps through the night, for example, without waking up to check the doors and windows to make sure they're still locked). Most people would say that it's not a bad thing to care deeply for your family's safety and financial security (and I agree), but is it worth getting an ulcer over? Is it worth saving up every cent you have and rarely seeing the world or using your money to help others because you're worried about an impending crisis that may not ever come? The fact is, whether we're talking about bank accounts or self image or life's little luxuries, a lot of us place a high premium on things that won't last. You certainly can't take them with you into the next life, and you may not even be able to hold onto them while you're here in this one.
I would invite each of you to examine your life and really be honest about the idols in it. I think it's an important exercise that we all need to undertake on a semi-regular basis to make sure we're intentionally living the kind of life that's most important to us.
For those of us who are spiritual and believe in God or some other kind of higher power and/or afterlife, that should be the most important thing in your life. What deserves greater priority and worship than the doctrine that you believe determines how you exit this life and enter the next one? And if you're not particularly spiritual or don't believe in those things, do some self-searching and figure out what those things are that you believe are most important to a life well lived. Once you've figured out what idols you should be worshipping, it's easier to tune out the ones you shouldn't be listening to. The ones who can never 100% satisfy you because you know the thrill you get from them is temporary.
Life isn't about eliminating all of your idols; it's about focusing on the ones worth worshipping.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
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I encourage you to check out the following spiritual items:
Is the Bible to be taken literally? That is, do we take the text at face value whenever it's plain meaning makes sense? We all know that it makes no sense to believe that Jesus is a gate or a lion; these are figures of speech and, like parables, we interpret them spiritually rather than literally. By literal, I mean that when the plain sense of the text makes sense then we accept it at face value. We simply believe it.
If we don't take the Bible literally then obviously there can be any number of interpretations for each passage. Someone could say that a passage means this and someone else could say it means something entirely different. This would result in each of us having our own, personal version of what God is saying. We would all have our own 'truth' with no standard to guide us into God's absolute truth.
To feel
To not feel
To deal
To not deal
To love
To not love
To wait
To not wait
To hate
To not hate
Such a fine line to skate
Silence now your opprobrium.
Choke the words, and bite your tongue.
Do not spill out your vile odium.
Curb the bitter phrase unsung.
You do not know me, but I am the luckiest person in the world. You may see my tattered clothes, my dirty hair or my toothless grin, but I am immaculate on the inside. If my inner spirit were visible instead of my outer shell, you would see what love looks like. You would know what hope and perseverance look like, and you would see the color of faith. Anyone can see them, if they only made an effort to look inside for my soul.
It was an idle and a lukewarm Sunday afternoon, the kind which seems to be created by the Lord as a visual definition of bliss. I had nothing to do, think or urgently attend to. I could have caught a siesta or I could have simple closed my eyes, put some songs and done nothing at all. But I couldn’t because a pang of guilt kept cropping its ugly head. My doc, who I had been seeing for my anxiety issues for long, had recommended that I do something useful – “artful” in his words - with my time. So I googled and booked a cab to a nearby exhibition. Luckily, it was just half an hour away.
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Feedback from my last newsletter on spending time in the desert (yes, it was almost two years ago that I last wrote an article for this newsletter... sorry for the delay!):
Quick-Quill  writes, "Jeff, I love your NL's. You always have me looking deep into my spiritual foundation. Jan 13,2014 my father went to be with the Lord. This isn't my desert. I look at desert times as what we go through to be refined. Here is a test. Would you like to be a hard egg, a mushy carrot or a tea bag? All have been tried by hot water (our trials/obsticals) what you come out is really your choice. Hardened by defeat? totally comsumed and too mushy to even stand up? or fragrant like tea? Something that soothes, comforts and refreshes? You make the choice as you see the green grass and palm trees of an oasis or the path that leads to the well watered plains of home? I saw my father as he passed and my mother and siblings sang the hymns of faith we learned and memorized as children around his bed until he was gone. That legacy is still firmly entrenched in our lives. What may be a desert to one, is just a dry creek bed to another. Determine how you will come out on the other side. "
So sorry for your loss, Tina. I love your attitude about life, though, and I always appreciate your feedback on my newsletters. 
embe  writes, "Hello Jeff, Thank you for another fine newsletter. My poem item - "Invalid Item" is attached to share my spiritual faith. embe in appreciation."
Thanks so much for sharing!
shepherd46 writes, "Thank you, Jeff, for a wonderful article! I've learned many things by being in a desert but sometimes, being human, I just don't want them anymore. However, I am learning to trust in God; that He will show me the way "out" of the desert and into an oasis. (Which He does, for sure!) Morningstar"
I totally agree with you; I don't think anyone wants to be in the desert (it's so much nicer when you're at the beach or enjoying the cool air of the mountain foothills!), but knowing that we all inevitably will spend some time in that dry, uncomfortable part of our lives will hopefully prepare us to trust in God that we're going through it for a reason and will eventually come out of it!
meinnnc writes, "Jeff, Spending Time In the Desert was so true as well as refreshing to those of us that get caught up in our daily lives and forget that there is a purpose for everything under the sun. Thank you so much and I look forward to reading more of what you have to post."
Thank you so much for the kind words!
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