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I think they are stupid.

“To be honest”                                   Do you typically lie?

“In my opinion”                                  Who else’s opinion do you normally give?

“In the final analysis”                         Then why are you still talking?

“Subject to Availability”                      Is there anything not subject to availability?

“Without Further Delay”                      Aren’t you delaying me further by saying that?

“Willy Nilly”                                        Is that a person’s name or just exposing your ignorance?

“A rose by any other name”                Would no longer be a rose.

I think they are stupid because I have no clue what they mean.

“As beautiful as the day is long”        My days are short, so is it ugly?

“Be there or be square”                      If I don’t show up am I a circle?

“Cat got your tongue”                        No. never.  I hate cats and they would never touch my tongue

“Clean your clock”                             How does a timing devise relate to making a football tackle?

“Even Stevens”                                   Is he related to the stunt man?

“Fly by the Seat of Your Pants”          What about wings? A plane? Or a magic carpet?

“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times.”  What if you only said it 995 times?

You know what I mean?  Stupid clichés that people use all the time and yet I have no clue what they mean.  This one’s my favorite:

“You are what you eat.”

Well I like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with a little 2% milk.  I eat it right out of the pot, sometimes with a side of pinto beans.  What does that make me?  Fat? Sloppy? Cheesy?

Clichés are not my thing, so I am surprised to be giving you one for my blog today.  However, I understand this cliché because it is lifted right from the pages of Scripture.  It goes like this:

“You are what you worship.”

Fortunately, I didn’t make this one up.  The Psalmist tells us this one is true.

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.  They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.  They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.  They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.  Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.”  Ps. 115:4-8

Clearly the Psalmist does not think much of the things that you and I worship. In fact his description is that they are impotent to meet any of our expectations.

And, that’s not the bad news.  The bad news is in the last phrase: “Those who make them become like them.”    He says that we become what we worship.  In other words, the things that we worship direct the trajectory of our lives and ultimately determine the type of person that you and I develop into.

Latin scholars had a maxim by which they expressed this concept: lex orandi, lex credenda, lex vivendi.  The statement literally says that the law of prayer (what we worship) leads to the law of belief (what we believe to be true) which leads to the law of life (how we live).  More succinctly we can say that what we worship determines what we believe which shapes how we live.

We take on the qualities and characteristics of what we worship.  As a result, it is important that we think about some of the characteristics of the gospel substitutes that we worship.  Here are a few:

1.      Temporal

Have you ever known one of your gospel substitutes to last?  No.  That is the folly of gospel substitutes.  They always promise something that they can’t provide.  Be it lust, power, pride, anger, or whatever, it never provides the fulfillment that you thought it would.  As Dr. Christopher Wright says, “False gods fail. That is their only truth. For although false gods never fail to fail, it seem humans never fail to forget that this is indeed the case” (Dr. Christopher Wright, The Mission of God, p. 171). And if you worship these gods you will become just like them – you will promise something that you can’t fulfill due to your faulty worship.  Maybe that is the underlying cause of the epidemic divorce rates, absentee fathers, and moral compromise.  We, like them, always fail.

2.      Lifeless

False gods give the appearance of life while lacking the reality.  People become convinced that gospel substitutes actually possess the life they are looking for, but in the end the false gods reveal their true, dead nature. Same with you.  If you worship false gods long enough you will prove the reality of your death by your actions.  While you may give the appearance of life – nice marriage, well adjusted kids, smiles at the right time, you might be just like your gods. We, like them, are lifeless.

3.      Powerless

We think that these gospel substitutes are going to come through for us.  If we only had a happy marriage, a life free of pain, more money, people who respected me, or children who obeyed then I would have the life I desire.  However, like all false gods, these objects of our sinful worship lack the power to provide that which our hearts long for.  We, like them, become powerless.

4.      Fragile

False gods break so easily.  Drop a golden calf on the ground and what happens?  It shatters into a million pieces.  It’s sad when a golden cow shatters, but I have seen much worse.  Our world is littered with people whose lives shattered due to their poor worship.  The storms of life came and because they worshipped at the feet of the god of comfort, fulfillment, happiness, or security their lives crumbled as well.  We, like them, become incredibly fragile.

Maybe this is why the first commandment says that we are not to have any other gods besides the one true God.  Far from an unreasonable command, this command truly has our best interest at heart because it protects our very humanity from being like the things we worship.  If I am going to be like someone, I would much rather be like the One True God than some silly gospel substitute.

Watch out.

“You are what you worship”

The words are so familiar: 

“Jesus Loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so..”