Let them hear. {Part 1)

I told you I had suitcases to pack. Had to go see my babies. Well, my brother's babies. But you know what I mean.

 

Then we had to re-enact the story of the paralytic being lowered in through the roof...

Four years old and already addicted to Flappy Bird.

 

No joke. We walked out of our rooms, looked at each other, and were like, "Um, I'm wearing that."

And then we saw what the other women in the house were wearing. Yeah, we're cool like that.

 

Upon returning from my trip and turning down my road...

Upon returning my trip to find that we had a blizzard while I was gone...

 

Oh, yeah. And this is the rest of my road...

It's not like I just drove past a pile of snow and took a picture. No. It's like this is where the plow cut a tunnel through the snow where a road usually is....

  

Out the rear-view window...

Imagine what it looked like before they plowed...

Yesterday morning I was reading along in my little plan and found myself in Psalm 115. Not a passage I know by heart, it’s always a little thrilling to be struck by something as if it is my first time seeing it! A handful of verses really struck me in particular.

“But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see;  they have ears but they cannot hear, noses but cannot smell; they have hands but cannot feel, feet but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will become like them, and so will all who trust in them.” (verse 4-8)

I don’t know about you, but that part about being like them doesn’t entice me. Many things in this great big world seem to call my name, shiny and rugged alike, but to become like a lifeless idol? I think I’ll pass.

Interesting, though, is that this passage alludes to the fact that some people are, in fact, just like them.

As a human being, I am made in the image of a God who speaks ( see the Genesis account—“God said…God said…God said”), sees (Psalm 94:9), hears (Psalm 94:9), feels (Mark 5:30), walks (John 6:19), utters sounds (Romans 8:26).

Therefore I speak, see, hear, feel, walk, and utter sounds. Have you ever thought about that?

But order moves to chaos always. And—when I run to other gods, when I forsake “my first love” like I know I do, what am I doing? Like this Psalm, in essence, am I not making myself in their image? In the image of that god am I not creating myself? It’s just like the first creation, only in reverse.

People are created to worship and in turn, we become like what we worship.

In the end then, when I am not worshiping the One who made me, when I am saying “No, this neat little idol that I have created, that I have put where I can see it, that I have made so that I can control it—this  is what I want to worship,” what does that mean? It means that most assuredly I will start to resemble them. I will lose the properties of who I WAS CREATED TO BE; I will become like them.  We become what we worship.

My abilities to speak. See. Feel. Smell. Walk. Utter Sounds. Those will be gone.

Every time I run to them, to these idols I look to to fulfill a desire they were never meant to fulfill, I am losing capacities I was supposed to have. The ability wanes.

The only question to be asked then is, what kind of god are you becoming like?

 Do you find yourself unfeeling? Are there things you cannot hear? Truths from God’s word you are not seeing? Not wanting to see? Not wanting to hear?

Could it be—maybe—that you are losing your ability to speak truth, see the gravity of the world’s situation, feel compassion, smell the beauty that is still in this world—marred as it is, walk your talk, and utter sounds to the ears of God that come deep from the heart of you because—maybe—HE is not the God you are following? Have you created something in your image to worship because it’s easier? It always tells you what you want to hear? It never does anything you don’t approve of?

I know. This is messy business. It’s not adventure and plane tickets and sequins.

But…I had to ask.