Today wraps up this series on idolatry. Over the last 4 weeks we've talked about exposing the golden calf in our lives, looking at surface idols and root idols. Then we talked about a couple of specific areas of idolatry that commonly affect us, family and money. As this series comes to a close, we're looking at one final idol that can be incredibly pervasive in most if not all of our lives as it is woven into the fabric of our culture. It manifests itself under different names - power, success, or achievement.
To start off, I'd like to show you a photo of a man you've probably never seen before:
**PHOTOGRAPH OF NATHAN HATCH**
This man is named Nathan Hatch and in the world of education, he's pretty successful. He was a leading historian of religion in the United States before becoming a provost at Notre Dame, until he left that position to serve as President of Wake Forest University in North Carolina until 2020. But, not only was he the president of Wake Forest, a highly significant university, he was also on the board of American Higher Education, he was on the board of the NCAA, and he was the Vice Chairman of the CIC, the Council of Independent Colleges. The CIC consists of about 600 colleges and universities nationwide. It represents, overall, at least a few million college students.
At this point, if you're sitting here following what I'm saying and just reading along - thank you. But also, I don't blame you at all if you're wondering why in the world I've shown a photo of some random guy and just started reading his resume. I promise he's not looking for a job - he's retired. But what I'm getting at here, is that when a man with this kind of level of expertise and reputation talks about higher education, people listen. They take note because he obviously has some sort of idea of what he's talking about.
In 2009, and you can read this for yourself on Wake Forests's website, Nathan Hatch gave a keynote address at the CIC, to about 600 college presidents, titled Renewing the Wellsprings of Responsibility. This keynote address started with some notes that educators had observed regarding some trends dating back over the last 20-30 years or so. Here's what was observed. Out of all the enrollment across these 600 colleges nationwide, there's been a disproportionate amount of students who are choosing to study a few niche areas, a few specific majors. The majors are in corporate and investment finance, banking, corporate law and business consulting, and specialized medicine to name a few. And this is interesting to him because there's way more students that are signing up for these majors than would statistically have a gift/talent/natural skill or bent toward that particular study. Now it's not necessarily rocket science to figure out why so many students are funneling into these careers.
They make money. A lot of money.
But further, they serve as the benchmarks of success and status in our culture.
Nathan Hatch doesn't just simply look at this and say, "Look at the drive and ambition of our young people. Look at how many are shooting for the highest levels of success! Look at how many are shooting for the stars!"
Instead, he says:
"...young people have been defining success and choosing careers with less attention to larger questions of meaning and purpose. The stratospheric salaries in investment banking, in consulting, in the premier law firms, and in specialized sectors of medicine have bedazzled a whole generation of our best students. Yet despite their financial success, there are signs of acute frustration by many young professionals. Often, their work does not satisfy or sustain."
-Nathan Hatch, Renewing the Wellsprings of Responsibility Keynote, 2009
He continues on talking about career burnout. These people in these highly prestigious and competitive careers without total burnout - and it's because people flood into these life choices and careers not because of a gifting, calling, or passion - but rather because, for lack of a better term - instead of shooting for the stars they're starstruck. Actually - let's put it like this - they're success-struck.
Now the question that I think naturally arises is this - why? (I find myself asking that question more and more these days.) There's no way that this happened just out of nowhere, right? This success-struck pursuit that embodies our culture has to start somewhere.
Here's what he continues to say about it:
"This culture of achievement can be all-pervasive. ...the quiet revolution in the way Americans are raising their children [is the] professionalization of childhood. Even grade school children are pushed into a culture of competition, with great attention given to which school they should attend, what grades they should achieve, and how many activities they should pursue. There exists...a massive organic apparatus for the production of children, a mighty "Achievatron.” The message is loud and clear: identity at any age is formed by what we do and accomplish."
-Nathan Hatch, Renewing the Wellsprings of Responsibility Keynote, 2009
Now, while there may be bits and pieces there that you may disagree with as certainly every single family in America doesn't operate in the way that he describes - there is something truly profound in the phrase, "identity at any age is formed by what we do and accomplish."
I just think of parents of young children saying things like:
"Is your child walking yet?"
"Ha! Walking? He's already talking."
And see - what he's saying is that this results in a real danger, a real potential danger. The danger is a generation of people making life decisions out of a worldly desire rather than out of a talent, gift, or passion. They can end up bedazzled by the mighty "Achievatron." This belief to liberate anyone to go as far as their hard work will take them, and with it all the prosperity that it may bring.
But here's the problem: the problem is the danger of exchanging one king for another - because we're built to bow.
We're going to find someone or something to serve.
Maybe in high school you got a letterman jacket for playing a sport or being involved in an extra-curricular activity. Every year you worked hard to add pins and patches to your jacket and it showed off to anyone who merely glanced at you what all you had achieved in high school. Or maybe you were in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts and had the vest wrapped with badges. Or maybe it was trophies on the shelf. I know for me I had a section on my book shelf for violin, orchestra, and art medals and awards. Or maybe it's the report cards, the diploma, or how many degrees you have. Maybe it's the promotions, the raises, the job title to which you unknowingly bow down.
While those are fairly obvious things, the idol of success is sneaky. Because it's almost gift-wrapped in virtuous traits and good values. Maybe it's a daily checklist that you complete. Maybe it's a kitchen or home that is always perfectly clean. Maybe it's a lawn that's perfectly manicured or a backyard that's cut in opposing semicircles every 4 days throughout the mowing season.
Like I said, the idol of success is sneaky. Maybe the most sneaky of any of the idols that we've talked about - because these can all be acts of worship. All of those actions can be things that we do with a heart of glorifying God, for recognizing Him for the talents and gifts that we've been given. For using our talents for His Kingdom. But it's when we make our lives all about getting things done, when our identity is in our achievements - we don't necessarily move God off the throne, but we make Him fight for space in the room.
Maybe it's checking off a box on a to-do list labeled "Go to church."
Today we're going to be in Luke 10.
And to give a little background here: Jesus, at this point in Luke's gospel, has about 6 months left of earth. Not much time left - and He knows it. Now, I think that it's probably safe to say that as far as achievers go - Jesus is pretty high up on the list. That's sarcasm, by the way, He only achieved more than anyone in all of human history. After all - it only took Him a few short years to redeem all of humanity.
As we approach Luke 10, Jesus has a lot to do and only a little time to do it. So it's a little bit of a surprise that we see Him taking time to stop and visit with some good friends of His, Mary and Martha. In my wisdom - if I knew everything that was going to transpire, I think that I would have suggested to Jesus back then to maybe skip hanging out at their house. Let's get some stuff done. You need to do some stuff - there's some pretty important things to attend to. And we still do that today.
But like Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, when the disciples thought Jesus didn't have time for the kids because of a day's busy itinerary, "Let the little children come to me," he also is intentional about spending time with these two women who clearly have a special relationship with Him. They're the two sisters of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
Martha opened her home to Jesus, and here's the scene that took place:
We have two sisters:
One is hurrying around frantically with all the preparations - her desire is that the home needs to be perfect and worthy of Jesus.
The other one is sitting quietly at His feet, and listening to what He has to say.
Starting in verse 40, so Luke 10:40-42 says:
"But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'"
-Luke 10:40-42 (NIV)
There's a lot going on in just 2 verses. And this section alone could easily be a sermon in and of itself - but today we're looking at these verses through the lens of idolatry. As such, there are two pretty important phrases that I want to make sure that we don't miss:
"Martha was distracted"
"Mary has chosen"
Martha had great intentions. It's not bad at all to want to present our best to God, right? But how often do we live our lives with good intentions, like Martha, but instead of spending time with Jesus, like Mary, we find at the end of the day that's the one thing on our check list we didn't get to? Wrestling with the idol of success, and achievement is a daily battle. Here's why: this idol offers a method of measurement. How much easier is it to give the vast majority of our time to something that we can tangibly see?
When the kitchen gets cleaned - guess what? It's clean. I can see that. It was dirty, now it's clean.
If there's a pile of my laundry that needs to be washed, and I wash it - well let's be real, my wife does it for me - guess what, now it's clean - and that's tangible.
When the grass gets mowed.
When the car gets washed.
Those are all things that return instant gratification, right? As soon as they're done - they're done. And we see that, and it's awesome, and we move on to the next thing.
How many times do you pray for something - and you pray, and pray, and pray, and pray, and pray, and pray, and pray? Often I've spent time in God's Word, I've spent time with Jesus, or I've spent time in prayer - and I don't see immediate results. As much as I may desperately want to. I recently spent some time with a few friends painting a couple of walls in the classrooms at New Hope. It got me to thinking - so often when I pray, I want to see the change in myself or in what I'm praying for like painting a room. When I'm finished, the change is obvious. That wall was gray - now it's blue. A family member is sick, now they're not. Or maybe a neighbor needs to come to Christ, but why is it taking so long?
The tyranny of the urgent is when we allow ourselves to become distracted in a sea of things that "need to be done right this second," and it breeds this subconscious mindset of just because we have a list of things that we deem need to be done "right now" then that means that when we ask Him, God should, too, do them right this second. Our time, not His. Our will, not His. Or in other words, He needs to have faith in us not, not the other way around. See how sneaky yet dangerous this idol is? It's wrapped in good, virtuous traits, but when we lose sight of the main thing then everything gets turned inside out and backwards. The thing about God is that He's never early, and He's never late. And that can be so hard to grasp at times. It can be so hard to grasp in the middle of fervent prayer. But it should also be highly comforting.
I've said before and I'll say it again - what Martha was doing wasn't evil. It wasn't a bad thing that she was doing. In fact, I'd even argue that it was a good thing that she was doing - she was serving Jesus. She wanted her house as best as it could be for, literally, Jesus. But Jesus said that what Mary was doing was better. And there's a huge lesson to be learned here. We can be doing something good, but it could be bad when there is something better. Martha was busy and distracted by preparing the house for Jesus, when Jesus literally was walking through the front door. Martha was cleaning up the house for Jesus, when Jesus literally was speaking in her home. And she's disctracted.
That's just wild to me. Yet how many of us do just that? How often are we distracted with all of the things we need to do that we don't take the time to talk with Christ? I'm guilty of it. I'm guilty of trying to prepare the home, trying to do x, y, and z - when I go to sleep and realize - "you know, maybe I should have read God's Word today." "Maybe I should have spent some time in prayer."
So as this is the last message in this series, it's time that we tackle what all of these idols all come down to. It's one word: choice. These idols don't lure us with something that's overtly or obviously sinful, rather these gods battle for our hearts with distractions of good things.
Distractions with good things made ultimate. Distractions with things that could be acts of worship - made ultimate. And the answer comes down to one phrase: reordering our priorities. Throughout scripture we hear about choices: we hear it from Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and now Jesus. Jesus commending Mary for the choice that she made.
There's another trait that Martha demonstrates. Another symptom of someone who struggles with an idol of success or achievement. Comparison. She compares herself to Mary. She keeps score.
"But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'"
-Luke 10:40 (NIV)
Teddy Roosevelt said this about comparison, and I think it's wonderful:
"Comparison is the thief of joy."
-Teddy Roosevelt
In a sermon I was listening to by Kyle Idleman, he pointed out that there are two symptoms of comparison.
Or, in terms of idolatry - two main symptoms of having an idol of success or achievement:
The first symptom is that maybe you have a constant frustration with people in your life who, from your perspective, aren't getting it done.
Martha wanted Mary to be a better teammate. And Mary didn't realize there was a game. This symptom will often times manifest itself as underserved criticism. Martha is highly critical of Mary's lack of help. Mary is busy listening to Jesus talk. Different priorities, undeserved criticism. Sometimes constructive criticism is deserved, and is necessary. But other times maybe a difference in perspective would also yield a different result.
The second symptom of the idol of success or achievement is being discontent. Discontent with yourself. Discontent with your life. Discontent with the results putting hope in your future on the achievements of the past.
Thomas DeLong a professor at Harvard Business School, in an article discussing high-achievement-individuals put it like this, I love this:
"When only external factors become our metrics for success, we are setting ourselves up for misery."
-Thomas DeLong, Harvard Business Review
Do you feel like you compare yourself to others constantly? "I'm doing so much more than so-and-so, why don't they help more?" Or maybe it's, "I should have gone into medicine. So-and-so is driving that Mercedes and it looks sweet."
"All of their posts on social media...They seem so happy, too. Why can't I be happy like that?"
Does it feel like you're living your life always running to catch up?
Or maybe you focus so much on getting things done, or getting things done right, that it becomes more important than anything or anyone else.
One of my favorite verses is Jeremiah 17:9 - and so often we only hear this part of it mentioned:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
-Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)
That we miss the amazing and (sometimes terrifying) next verse:
"I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
-Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV)
The heart is deceitful above all things, who can understand it? The Lord.
And thank God for that - because I know that I sure can't. I'm so glad that's not left up to me.
Timothy Keller puts it like this and I think it's just amazing:
"You are more sinful than you ever thought you were. And you are more loved than you ever dreamed you could be."
-Timothy Keller
Achieving great things is amazing and wonderful until it takes a seat on the throne. Achieving great and wonderful things help make this world a much better place. But in the end - we can't put our faith in what we personally achieve. We can't put our faith in our merits and achievements because they're not eternal.
Christ is.
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
-2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)
I thank God that His grace and mercy is available to us not because we may be a great student, and have great grades and all sorts of patches and pins. Or because we've raised the best children. Or because we have the esteem of everyone in cubicle-land.
It's just grace.
A gift.
If my sense of identity, if my sense of value isn't what I do, on what I've achieved, but on what has already been done for me, the true ultimate achievement of Christ's sacrifice on the cross...if that's my starting point - well that completely changes everything, doesn't it?
Again, our work isn't bad. Our achievements aren't bad things. But imagine if you have a gospel-centered approach to what you do, to your actions, to your work, to your responsibilities - you can go about your day and why even make comparisons? Why put yourself in the position of proving your worth to others?
Jordan was a man of unusual abilities and commitment. He had two Ph.D.s, one in agriculture and the other in Greek and Hebrew. He was so gifted he could have chosen to do anything he wanted. He chose to serve the poor. In the 1940s, he founded a farm in Americus, Georgia, and called it Koinonia Farm. It was a community for poor whites and poor blacks. As you might guess, the idea did not go over well in the Deep South of the 1940s. The town people tried everything to stop Clarence. They tried boycotting him, and slashing the workers' tires when they came to town. Over and over, for fourteen years, they tried to stop him.
Finally, in 1954, the Ku Klux Klan had enough of Clarence Jordan, so they decided to get rid of him once and for all. They came one night with guns and torches and set fire to every building on Koinonia Farm but Clarence's home, which they riddled with bullets. They chased off all the families but one black family that refused to leave. Clarence recognized the voices of the Klansmen, some of who were church people. One Klansman was a local newspaper reporter. The next day, the reporter came out to see what remained of the farm. The rubble was smoldering, but he found Clarence in the field, hoeing and planting.
"I heard the awful news," he called to Clarence, "and I came out to do a story on the tragedy of your farm closing." Clarence just kept on hoeing and planting. The reporter kept poking trying to get this quietly determined man to get angry. Instead of packing, Clarence was planting. Finally, the reporter said in a haughty voice, "Well, Dr. Jordan, you got two of them Ph.D.s and you've got fourteen years into this farm, and there's nothing left of it at all. Just how successful do you think you've been?"
Clarence stopped hoeing, turned toward the reporter with his penetrating blue eyes, and said quietly but firmly, "About as successful as the cross. Sir, I don't think you understand us. What we are about is not success but faithfulness. We're staying. Good day." Beginning that day, Clarence and his companions rebuilt Koinonia and the farm is going strong today (Hansel, 2010).
In fact, they open at 1pm on Sundays - just an FYI.
Chuck Colson, a highly-highly-highly successful man who was sent to prison as a result of the Watergate Scandal and was saved while incarcerated, said this about coming to Christ:
"God doesn’t want our success; He wants us."
-Chuck Colson
Out of everything we've talked about the last four weeks, out of all the idols we've encountered and convictions we've faced - God doesn't want our successes. He wants us.
Your existence doesn't have to be justified by your accomplishments. And thank God for that.
Your significance, your value has already been proven and paid for by God, who gave His one and only son so that you may have eternal life. So that you can have the life that He paid for. Free of charge. And thank God for that.
Thank God that through Christ we can be, like Clarence said, "as successful as the cross."
What a wonderful response to a world trying to tear him down. Talk about priorities being reordered, and a destroyed idol of success. Talk about a destroyed idol of money, and of family...of control, approval, power, and comfort.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16 (ESV)
Sources:
Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat, p. 188-189. From a sermon by Ed Sasnett, Fools for Christ, 6/8/2010
