“These people were so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.” Morrie Schwartz, “Tuesday with Morrie”
In the book, Tuesday with Morrie, Morrie Schwartz, a sociology professor at Brandeis University who was dying with ALS, conducted a series of interviews with one of his students. Morrie proposed that love is the most important thing in life, and that material things can't be a substitute.
In the Book of Psalm 115:1-8, in an interview with God, He puts forth the notion that the most dysfunctional, damaging, and disappointing substitutes are idols that love-starved people craft with their hands. These idols not only ultimately disappoint, they define you. You become your substitutes. So, when you look in the mirror, do you like what you see, leaving the question: What have I become?
1Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.2Why should the nations say, "Where, now, is their God?" 3But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.4Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands.5They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; 6They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; 7They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. 8Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. Psalm 115:1-8
You become what you make.
According to Psalm 115:4-8, idol substitutes reflect a trust (or mistrust) in the works of man. They don’t reflect well of you or the glory of God. Idolatry reflects:
Silence when it’s time to speak up. 5aThey have mouths, but they cannot speak. When you know the truth, yet say nothing to liars and liars, what have you become—a convenient mute?
Moral blindness. 5bThey have eyes, but they cannot see. When you see injustice, yet turn your head, you will likely trip over yourself someday.
Deafness to the cries. 6aThey have ears, but they cannot hear; When your brother needs help, yet their cries go unheeded, an unheard bell will toll for you someday.
Insensitivity to inequity. 6bThey have noses, but they cannot smell. When ill-winds of inequity are blowing, yet you are always upwind, remember unfairness, like wildfires can shift on you without notice.
Aversion to empathy. 7They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. Lack of meaningful relationships in community will deaden your ability to share in the suffering of your brother, to walk in the shoes of the oppressed, and to be the voice of the disenfranchised.
Habituation breeds assimilation. 8Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. Bad behavior done over time can become engrained in the spirit of a man. The heart can become harden, irretractable, unresponsive to positive change.
You become what you are made of.
According to Psalm 115:1-3, trust in the one true, sovereign God in heaven reflects two divine qualities in you (we are made in His image: Genesis 1:8) for which there are no substitutes: love and truth.
1Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth. 2Why should the nations say, "Where, now, is their God?"
• God’s lovingkindness is resident in you. Chesed is kindness based in love. How you treat your brother reveals how you love God. The two are inseparable.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
• God’s truth is resident in you.
If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. 1 John 4:20
Take a long hard look in the mirror. If you don’t like what you’ve become, don’t get a new, yet flawed mirror. Instead look within. Trust God. Replacing God and His love and truth with a substitute will not satisfy you or reflect the greatness you aspire. That idol will not uphold you like God can or give you what you want to give your children—all children—a hug.
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