We make really, really terrible gods.
The logic behind worshipping nature and elements, while flawed, is understandable. We are creatures wired for worship; if you refuse to look to the Creator, wouldn’t the next logical item of worship be the mightiest of created things?
Our tendencies to worship ourselves are completely illogical.
Why do we promote a culture of self-adoration when we secretly all know what we are individually capable of? We shouldn’t be surprised when we fail or sin or do terrible things – we should be surprised that we don’t do MORE of those things. Jeremiah 17:9 put it plainly: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Yet, we fawn over and focus on and fight for ourselves constantly. We exchange a healthy confidence and self-image for one that places us on the pedestal until all that matters is ourselves. We become our own god.
I fall short. We fall short. We are sinful and flawed. We are absolutely powerless. You and I cannot even control the breath in our lungs and the life in our bones, much less the force of nature. I am reminded of God’s questioning of Job:
“Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.”
It doesn’t matter which self-centered, New Age mantra you turn to – they all fall short. The ‘power within you’ can no more keep you from inherent depravity and wickedness than it can enable you to maintain your own life. The ‘light within you’ is darkness. John proclaimed that the life brought by Jesus was the light of all mankind – nothing we conjured or previously held.
We make hollow, shallow, powerless gods. Let us lift our eyes from our own feeble attempts of self-deification and place them on the One that holds all power, glory, and might forever and ever.
KELVEY OLIVIA VANDER HART 