Wrestling With our Idols

I recently read Tim Keller's new book, Counterfeit Gods. It's a great work that simply peals back the idolatries that most Westerners share. The subtitle of the book is: The empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the Only Hope that matters. Here's an excerpt from Keller's book:

"We should not think that one culture is less idolatrous than the next.
Traditional societies tend to make the family unit and the clan into an
absolute, ultimate thing. This can lead to honor killings, the treatment of
women as chattel, and violence toward gay people. Western, secular cultures make
an idol out of individual freedom, and this leads to the breakdown of the
family, rampant materialism, careerism, and the idolization of romantic love,
physical beauty, and profit.”

My reading has brought about deep challenges in terms of how influenced I remain by the idols of my own culture, and how counter-cultural I'll become as fullness or worship to Jesus becomes the norm of my own heart.

In a recent article by a friend of mine, Jon Tyson, says the following about how our own idols have made limp our efforts to stand out as light in the world:

"In the midst of this cultural fragmentation [this is evident all around us],
the church has tried to address the problem by calling people to a vision of
true community. But no matter how hard we try, the cultural forces are often too
powerful and persuasive to counteract. We are barely different from our culture
-- busy, driven, individualistic, and disconnected -- and so, we too have lost
our social capital. Our lives lack that mystical missing ingredient. We have become cultural consumers who no longer have the networks, norms, or values for anything other than our own peace and affluence. It shouldn't be this way. As people who are called to be a new and different kind of community -- a city on a hill -- we should offer something toward the common good and the renewal of our world. But because our schedules, practices, values, and networks are often identical to those who are not believers, we lack the ability to offer them anything different than the
fragmenting forces they are already encountering in society. We have somehow
forgotten that we are called to something bigger than our own fulfillment and
dreams."

It's humbling to realize that the reason most of us aren't shining as lights in our communities is that we've still got traces of false worship in us. The lifestyle changes that would be reflected in different worship aren't visible because my worship is still polluted. We are still worshiping at the temples of our culture in the pursuit of "our own fulfillment and dreams."

Jesus called us to be a city on a hill. That won't happen because of any ingenious plan we can concoct to make impact in our neighborhoods. It will only happen when Jesus is the sole aim of all my affections, hopes, wants, and faith.