What do I worship?
Habakkuk 1-2 tells us the account of the prophet Habbukuk lamenting the evils he sees all around him, both within Israel and in the success of their enemy Babylon. Idolatry is rampant at this time and Habbakuk cries out, “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”
Just last week I graduated from Calvin, and I am entering a world that is radically different and yet the same as Habbakuk’s world. Habakkuk worried about golden idols and child sacrifices, but today we worry about the same problems of the heart in different forms–money, power, comfort, or security. I myself am tempted by the idol of certainty–I ask God why I can’t just know what will happen next, how to go about my relationships, or where my career is headed. How long, Lord, will it be before I can feel certain about the future?
Looking back on the many life transitions I went through as a missionary kid, I can see where this desire for certainty comes from. All of the idols we make come from God-given desires for good things He has created, but the issue arises when those things become the first things. When I had to move back to Turkey in 8th grade after living in the U.S. for several years, I found myself dizzied with uncertainty, but instead of running to God I turned to distractions. I quickly found out though, that those wouldn’t hold up in the face of my existential need for a relationship with Eternity Himself. As Augustine famously wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
God responds to our idolatry with truth. “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies?” God is the only thing that can fulfill the deep longings of our hearts–all earthly idols are counterfeit objects of our love, promising something they cannot deliver. The end of chapter 2 tells us “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” The simple answer to the emptiness of idols is to acknowledge God’s place and our place before him–our only response to his preeminence is to be silent before him. To be truly silent before God is to give up our preoccupation with comfort, security, and certainty, and to find peace in His presence.
This is a reminder to all of us experiencing transitions. The worldly things we look to for constancy through change will ultimately be disappointing. The only constancy we can find in this life is in our eternal King. In daily practices of silence, we open our hearts to God’s word for us, and we find true peace amidst great uncertainty. For me, Christ Church has also been a deep well of community and practice that recenters me on the reality of our need for God and the emptiness of this world without Him. I pray that Christ Church would continue to flourish as a place that holds God’s assurance of peace above any other promise of peace from the world, and that brings comfort to those who have suffered from the inevitable disappointment of placing hope in this world.