Hero Worship and Fleeing Idolatry
Did you ever know that you’re my hero?
—–Bette Midler
There is nothing wrong with looking up to others as a Christian. Having good examples to follow makes understanding life as a disciple easier and is part of why fellowship is so important for you. Hearing good teaching of the Bible is such a blessing, as is being part of a loving church. Yet, these same things that can be used for good in your life can also be the source of everything from distraction to intense pain and loss. This is because of the temptation every human faces to embrace idolatry. This may bring to mind pictures of false religions or scenes from the Old Testament. Yet, the sin of idolatry is just as common in the modern as it was in Elijah’s day and shows up both inside and outside the church, often in surprising ways. Satan does not need you to be specifically sacrificing to Baal, the ancient idol of prosperity the Canaanites, if you are devoted to any modern person who promises you the same. Jesus earned His role as the Lord of your life and He is the only One who can fill it. He is the only real hero in the most important of all stories.
God Tears Down Idols for Everyone: The Ark Part II
My Daddy, the Hero
My Dad was my hero growing up. Like so many little boys, I idolized my father and wanted to be just like him. I thought he knew everything, was the strongest and bravest and would protect me from anything that the world threw at me. This is not unusual for little boys, I know, but what set my Father apart was he was a real life hero. He was not only a member of the famed New York City Fire Department, but is a legend in that community to this day. He regularly ran into burning buildings to save people from certain death and had a chest full of medals to prove it. He was strong, determined, and fearless and I knew that if I got into trouble, he would not back down from anything in order to help me. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world having my dad, the hero fireman, when I was very small. As I grew, though, I confronted the painful reality of all idols, human or otherwise. No matter their good points, none of them are perfect. For the human versions, they not only fail on a regular basis, like anyone, but many have significant bad points – some more than others. It is also true that, no matter their profession, their awards, or acclaim, they also cannot save you in the most important of all ways.
This is why idolizing any person, putting anyone on the throne of your life only Jesus should occupy always leads to pain and disappointment. Only Jesus can be the Savior and model for you in everything.
You Can be an Extraordinary Christian!
It is Natural to Look for a Hero and Savior
I still marvel at the newspaper account of my Dad’s rescues of people who were in terrible danger. He once arrived at the scene of a fire where the blaze was so fierce the other firemen who had arrived before his were fighting it from the exterior. They could not get into the building because of the intense heat and smoke. Upon his arrival, my father jumped off his truck and ran past the other firemen directly into the inferno to try to reach people trapped inside. After time passed, with hope fading, my dad suddenly appeared in an upper story window with a mother and child in his arms framed by the flames behind him. Undaunted by a fire truck’s tower multi-story ladder malfunctioning as it tried to get to him, leaving it a few feet out of reach, my dad threw the woman and child across the gap to waiting firemen before leaping across himself, with parts of his uniform on fire. As I proudly stood with him on a dais on medal day that year, as the Mayor of New York awarded him their highest medal for valor, I was in absolute awe of him. I knew for certain that he would face down raging infernos, blinding smoke, and, often, risk of death in order to save people. That was who I would be when I got bigger!!!!
Yet, i came to learn that, despite his accomplishments, my father was just one fireman and just one flawed person, subject to all the same limitations and temptations as every other man. This fact was made clear around the same time as the medal ceremony when another towering inferno claimed the lives of two firemen close to him, one a fireman under his command and the other his best friend that I called “uncle”, based on their friendship. I still vividly remember to this day, many years later as I watched my idol, the man who I thought was perfect and unmovable, broken by all of the pain, sorrow, and loss that came with this tragedy. Though he kept on working and braved many more fires, for the first time I realized that not only could my dad could not save everyone, but he was paying an enormous price for trying to do so, in himself and in our family. Though, he was one of the best and most highly decorated firemen in the world, the harsh truth was not only could he not save everyone from a fire, but he also could not save himself from the damage that followed. I looked at my idol, the man who I thought was close to a super hero and realized the truth that, if he could not save himself from all that I was watching him suffer, how could I he save me? He would have run into a burning building, but the damage, pressures, and hurts of his chosen profession left him defenseless against many of the biggest dangers of life.
The Trustworthy One Who Saves to the Utmost
I was not quite ready to question my idol, though. Thankfully, Jesus was patient and merciful with me as I spent years doing so. Things had to get more painful before I was willing to do so. I had to spend years making the mistake David avoided and wear another man’s armor.
38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. 1 Kings 17
As I grew older, I liken my experience with following in my father’s footsteps with when I dressed up as my fireman dad for Halloween. This may seem cute, but I made the mistake of dressing like a fireman too literally. Ten year old me wore my dad’s authentic and incredibly heavy fire helmet, turnout coat, and boots…on a day that was unseasonably warm. It felt like I was awesome and just like my Dad when I first put them on. Smelling the intense smoke odors that were saturated in the uniform made me feel great. I was a real fireman like my Dad and everyone would see that! Yet, it was not long before the weight bore down on me, the heat took its toll, and I couldn’t take another step, much less continue getting candy. Trying to live up to the pattern of another person left me broken, worn out, and robbed of the joy of what I had planned for the day. It was painful because it was not me and my idol could do nothing to help me with that clear truth. It was not long before I took of my costume that day and found relief, but sadly it took me so much longer and so much more pain before I was willing to let go of my desire to copy my dad and step completely into my own life.
The True Meaning of Radical Discipleship
It was only when I met Jesus did I understand the futility of my idol worship and the burdens that I had been carrying, those inherited and ones of my own creation. Only Jesus could not only save me from physical flames, but also all of the pains, hurts, sins, and burdens that life outside of the moments of emergency piled on me. It was also only Jesus who taught me what a full and abundant life looked like for me, individually, not just as a copy of some other person.
You may not be struggling in the shadow of a hero parent. That is my story. Yet, the temptation to make an idol of someone or something and devoting your life to serve that idol is just as present or every person, no matter where you are in life. In relationships, it can come in the form of co-dependency, where your Godly desire to love and serve your spouse or family member gets warped an unhealthy devotion to their happiness. You become a slave to keeping another person happy or making sure they are not mad. It can come through your view of your schooling or profession, where success and advancement become the idol around which you plan and carry out your life. In the church, it can come in choosing a church, a pastor, a speaker, or celebrity and basing your sense of holiness, righteousness, and standing with God based on your association with that figure and how follow their directions. There are many different manifestations, but they all amount to what Paul describes in Romans 1:25:
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.
My father was not bad for being a fireman and a hero. He was flawed in many ways, sure, but he also had his strengths. It was normal for me to look up to him, learn from him, and want to be like, when I was little. It is also not bad to respect your leaders and try to learn from Christians who are doing well in the Lord. Paul invited the Corinthian believers to follow him as he followed Christ. The problem comes when any person becomes the source of all of the great things that are only available through Jesus and recipient of our devotion meant for the Lord. Paul puts this simply in Galatians 1:10:
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
I loved my Dad, but I live for the approval of Christ. I love my wife and children, but I live first for the approval of Jesus, who calls me to love and serve my wife and kids in Him. I respect so many mature Christians and a large number of godly pastors and great churches, but I never base my feelings of worth, holiness, status in Jesus, effectiveness, or mission on anyone other than Jesus. Doing otherwise not only makes me subject to the roller coaster ride of the opinions of very flawed people, of which I am one, but also ignores the fact that it was only Jesus who bought me with a price.
You shall have no other Gods but me, says the Lord. Keeping this most fundamental commandment in your life is the only way to true freedom and contentment.
