The Four Idols
Nov 25th, 2008 by ljkim
A couple of weeks ago we talked about “idols.” An idol is something that winds up steering you and making decisions for you. It’s when a good thing becomes elevated in your mind to the point that it begins to make god-like claims on you with the power to send you to heaven or hell… (When you fulfill your idols you feel like you’re in heaven, when you go contrary to your idols, hell). In looking at examples (mostly from insightful case studies from discussions on idols) I noticed that idols generally fall into four categories. Take it for what its worth… What are your idols?
1. The Pleasure Idol. Everyone would rather enjoy something than not, but the pleasure idol is when “fun” or “interest” becomes a controlling force in your life. You feel most alive when you’re experiencing pleasure or having fun in some way. Pleasure idol people often “live” for the weekends, parties, or vacations. Sometimes it manifests in near-addictive behavior toward things like sex, video games, television or movies, serial dramas. On the other hand the pleasure idol person may find themselves quitting things (jobs, relationships, responsibilities) when it stops being “fun” or “interesting.”
2. The Performance Idol. Most people would rather win than lose at something, but the performance idol is when “winning” or “excellence” becomes a prime controlling force in a person’s life. You feel most alive when you’re winning or succeeding. Unlike the pleasure idol person, performance idol people would gladly do something that would make them miserable in order to “succeed.” To fail is often the greatest punishment or nightmare. When performance becomes an idol people find themselves driven by the need to succeed, while quitting things they can’t succeed in.
3. The People Idol. It’s nice to be liked, but people-idol people feel most alive when they are affirmed and accepted by people. This can encourage people to be high achievers, but unlike performance-idol people who see success as an end in itself, people-idol people succeed in order to get the affirmation, the kudos, the love and respect that comes with success. It’s not uncommon to hear a people-idol person say they want to quit a job because “they hate the people there” whereas a performance idol person would stay as long as there was chance for advancement or success.
4. The Power Idol. Power idol people feel most alive when they have control or responsibility over things and people. They need to be in charge of things. They feel punished when responsibility is taken away from them (whereas a pleasure idol person might welcome the opportunity to ditch some responsibilities). Unlike performance idol people, they don’t feel the need to be the “best”. They don’t need to be the smartest, or the strongest, or the fastest, as long as they can be in charge.
The four idols almost sound like personality temperaments, they’re not. People of any temperament can have any of these idols. I think most people have a combination of one or two of them that they default to.
What’s so wrong with these idols?
What makes idols “idols” is that they wind up controlling you. If you are a pleasure idol person and you have a choice to have lots of “fun” or have no fun, which would you choose? If you’re a performance idol person and you have a choice that can lead to great success, and a choice that could lead to fun but with failure, then which do you think you’d choose? Or the people idol person with a chance at winning love and admiration vs. having people hate them? Or a power idol person with a choice of gaining power or losing it?
The problem is…is it always right to have fun? Sometimes it is the right thing, sometimes it’s not. The problem with idols is (the prophets say) they are made of wood and stone, they’re not alive enough or flexible enough or smart enough to lead you in the right direction. Sometimes the best thing is just to have fun…but other times, no. Sometimes the best thing is to suceed, but other times you should go and take care of your family. Sometimes the right course will mean people will love you, but other times the right thing will be very unpopular. And sometimes goodness will mean more power for you, but very often it will mean giving up power.
So what are your idols of wood and stone? Perhaps it’s time to upgrade to a bigger God.
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