Project #LikeLife: Icons, not Idols š
Have you ever heard anyone casually say something like -
"I hate my body."
"I hate my job."
"I hate my life."
"I hate my house."
"I hate my ___."
I heard a quote last week that clued me into why we all say things like this.
"We eventually despise what we idolize."
We can find ourselves hating our lives, bodies, families, clothes, stuff, and other people's reactions ā because we confuse them as the very thing that will fill us. When they don't, of course, we despise them! They didn't live up to our hope or human need for God.
However, these are good things! Your body is good, and your house is a gift, your people are placed on purpose.
I don't think the call is reject or get rid of these things. What if the invitation was a reprioritization? To view these things not as idols - things that will fill us - but icons - things that we receive that point us to something greater.
I think we're called to admire them, count them as gifts, enjoy them but not stop there. We can let them point us back to worship the thing that sustains us - God.
There's so much pressure to love your life - and while we do in moments, we can't always.
Have you ever asked this: If I don't feel like I love my life all the time - is there something wrong with me? No. We're made for heaven, not earth, and this life before eternity isn't it for us. We all crave something more.
When I keep this in mind, everything shifts. I'm freed up to really like it here because everything I see, experience, and receive points to the reality that there is a God, a Holy Spirit who loves me, is with me, and is making room in eternity for me.
This just makes me like life more. It's why #likelife goes so much deeper than a flirty hashtag.
We get to like this life because it's an icon of what's to come. We don't have to idolize it because we know it's not it for us - it won't sustain our call, so we don't put that pressure on it. We just get to like it!!!
Life is a gift - but it isn't all there is. I pray we receive it all this week and point out everything that is an icon of heaven. They're all around.