Monday, August 8, 2011

We All Worship Something


It seems there will be volatile markets around the world for a few days or weeks. Money can accomplish so much, but making it an idol can bring heartbreaking consequences. The following insight was published in our church bulletin yesterday. We can all probably benefit from it somewhere in our lives.

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
If you worship money and things—if they are where you tap real meaning in life—then you will never have enough. . . . It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. . . .
Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.
 Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship . . . is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings. They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day . . .
David Foster Wallace (novelist) – commencement address, Kenyon College, 2005

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