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Right now I’m reading a book called Counterfeit Gods by a pastor named Tim Keller. The book is based on the idea that we all have something or someone we hang out hopes on in this life to give us peace, security, hope, happiness, and relief. We all feel restless and anxious and churn at times because we long for more from this life, but can’t seem to find it. Keller’s premise is that God is the only one who can fill the ache in our soul but we don’t always start there. So we fabricate meaning and hope or security and happiness in other things. Things he deems counterfeit gods. We’ve always done this. Read your history, study the ancients. Deep in our collective human experience lies, well, lies. Lies that we can find rest in almost any other place except in knowing and being known by our Creator. So for the next several weeks or when it hits me, I will share some nuggets I’m collecting from the book. Maybe it will entice you to read it for yourself. I bought 12 copies of this book and will be giving it to key influencers and leaders at Engage. My hope is to spread this book like an idea virus through our community….if we take it to heart it will mean that Engage will continue to be a place that celebrates honesty about these parts of ourselves that go searching for life or salvation in everything else but God….I would love to have you comment and start some dialogue. Check out the video teaser for the book. http://www.counterfeitgods.com/
page 39 - Speaking about our tendency to look for fulfilment in romance. No person, not even the best one, can give your soul all it needs. pg 40 The failure of romantic love as a solution to human problems is so much a part of modern man’s frustration…No human relationships can bear the burden of godhood….However much we may idealize or idolize him (or her, the love partner), he / she inevitably reflects earthly decay and imperfection….After all, what is it that we want when we elevate the love partner to this position? We want to be rid of our faults, of our feeling of nothingness. We want to be justified, to know our existence has not been in vain. We want redemption–nothing less. Needless to say, human partners cannot give this.
Keller at one point quotes C.S. Lewis about our human longings which nothing can satisfy:
Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. . . There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry maybe a very interesting job: but something has evaded us.
U2 was right. We still haven’t found what we are looking for….
jon
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This entry was written by , posted on November 4, 2009 at 1:37 pm, filed under blog and tagged Counterfeit Gods, crave, engage, engage church of carlisle, pa. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
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Interesting that he says (in the intro) that alex de toqueville noted that there was a strange sort of melancholy in america in the midst of abundance. This is the same guy that raved about the mission driven work of non profits and how the volunteerism and communinty in this country made us distinct and different. At the same time there was this longing for unmet needs in spite of economic prisperity. He saw this as our country formed and nothing has changed. Interesting that as a fledgling nation we were grasping at idols to fulfill us as a country to the point that observers took note and wrote about it. We’re still grasping…
I think it’s interesting how (in the intro) Keller mentions Alex DeToqueville’s observations that America was a place of strange melancholy in the midst of great abundance. This is the same person that famously wrote about America’s non profit work and volunteerism and how this created community and made our country unique and different from the rest of the world. However, while admiring the social fabric of our country, he still noticed this “melancholy” i.e. – longing for unmet needs in spite of economic growth and prosperity. As a fledgling country we were grasping for at idols… as we continue to today…