05-01-13 Time for Idolatry?
As I prepared this brief series on Idolatry in modern life, I wrestled with one aspect that is tough to discern. Like most things in life, the subject at hand is very good, but must be tamed if we are to make progress in life.
When this all important aspect of life is out of balance, life itself takes on a macabre slant and only God knows where it will end.
Here’s a hint from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, “The tiny Lilliputians surmise that Gulliver’s watch may be his god, because it is that which, he admits, he seldom does anything without consulting.”
A few years ago I was counseling with a clergy couple. Nice, older, experienced, but their non-pulpit life was spiraling out of control. As we talked, I noticed they both kept looking at their time pieces, one a cell phone and the other a Rollex knockoff. The obsession with time was rendering the session a total waste of..time.
The couple had been one half hour late for the appointment. I asked, “Do you have another appointment?” “Yes we do. Our bowling tournament starts in 35 minutes and we have just enough time to get there.” Perhaps the Lilliputians were on to something?
Time is not an Idol, but it is often used for Idol time.
Job 7:1, “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?”
Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly
As I prepared this brief series on Idolatry in modern life, I wrestled with one aspect that is tough to discern. Like most things in life, the subject at hand is very good, but must be tamed if we are to make progress in life.
When this all important aspect of life is out of balance, life itself takes on a macabre slant and only God knows where it will end.
Here’s a hint from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, “The tiny Lilliputians surmise that Gulliver’s watch may be his god, because it is that which, he admits, he seldom does anything without consulting.”
A few years ago I was counseling with a clergy couple. Nice, older, experienced, but their non-pulpit life was spiraling out of control. As we talked, I noticed they both kept looking at their time pieces, one a cell phone and the other a Rollex knockoff. The obsession with time was rendering the session a total waste of..time.
The couple had been one half hour late for the appointment. I asked, “Do you have another appointment?” “Yes we do. Our bowling tournament starts in 35 minutes and we have just enough time to get there.” Perhaps the Lilliputians were on to something?
Time is not an Idol, but it is often used for Idol time.
Job 7:1, “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?”
Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly
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