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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