Why Are Control Freaks Prone to Idols?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | This week we are joined on the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:00:07.720 | with Dr. Richard Lentz,
00:00:09.720 | the Vice President for Academic Affairs
00:00:11.920 | and Dean of the main campus of Gordon-Conwell
00:00:14.900 | Theological Seminary, just a short drive north of Boston.
00:00:18.220 | Dr. Lentz is also the author of a book
00:00:19.840 | that releases this winter titled
00:00:21.320 | Identity and Idolatry, the Image of God and Its Inversion
00:00:25.640 | in Don Carson's Silver Series,
00:00:27.600 | New Studies in Biblical Theology.
00:00:29.640 | Dr. Lentz, you develop an interesting point
00:00:32.240 | on Romans 1 in your new book,
00:00:34.720 | when you point out that sinners exchange God
00:00:37.400 | for created things, this is idolatry of course,
00:00:40.880 | but you go on to point out this,
00:00:42.200 | quote, "Humans have persuaded themselves into thinking
00:00:45.360 | "that other created things
00:00:47.240 | "will satisfy their deepest longings.
00:00:50.360 | "The apparent wisdom in this is the illusion
00:00:53.080 | "that created things can be more easily controlled
00:00:57.220 | "than the creator," end quote.
00:01:00.120 | There's something profound about our desire
00:01:02.080 | to be deeply satisfied in the things that we can control.
00:01:06.720 | Control freaks love idols, explain this.
00:01:10.760 | - Yeah, and I do think that there is something
00:01:13.480 | really unique about contemporary idols in this respect.
00:01:18.480 | Although the dynamic of control
00:01:22.240 | is present in most forms of idolatry across every age,
00:01:26.480 | across every culture, but what's unique in our time
00:01:29.800 | as we think about the idols of our own hearts
00:01:33.440 | is that we believe they are more easily controlled
00:01:38.080 | than the living God.
00:01:39.240 | And in part, that's not, I mean,
00:01:42.360 | there's some wisdom in that.
00:01:43.360 | That is, you don't control the living God.
00:01:46.200 | And so the natural instinct in a fallen creature
00:01:51.200 | is to suppose I need to find things that will satisfy me
00:01:54.760 | or give me significance that I have a greater control of,
00:01:59.720 | therefore, have greater control of my own identity.
00:02:04.120 | Now, I think that arises for most of us
00:02:07.880 | in this context of believing that we have access
00:02:12.400 | to greater tools of choice and control.
00:02:17.120 | So we have this mistaken impression
00:02:22.140 | that we live in a world where,
00:02:24.020 | because we have so many choices,
00:02:26.980 | we can control our destiny more than we could have
00:02:30.580 | in an earlier age.
00:02:32.020 | And what progress means, that language of progress
00:02:37.020 | is the language of choice and control.
00:02:40.260 | The deeply unsatisfying part
00:02:43.580 | of this great contemporary myth
00:02:46.580 | is that we all also feel overwhelmed, paralyzed almost,
00:02:52.180 | by the amount of choices that we have in our lives,
00:02:56.220 | that most people experience in the West,
00:02:59.900 | in most of our cultural context,
00:03:02.500 | that these choices become overwhelming.
00:03:05.940 | And that's also another dynamic of idolatry.
00:03:10.200 | We recognize that our idols are controlling us.
00:03:14.940 | And so I think it's not a cultural accident
00:03:19.380 | that burnout is a common experience,
00:03:22.700 | that busyness, sheer simple busyness,
00:03:27.020 | seems a pressing personal dilemma for many people.
00:03:31.740 | There are too many things to do.
00:03:34.140 | And that's, of course, the other side
00:03:36.460 | or the result of believing
00:03:38.260 | that we can control our environment
00:03:40.520 | by expressing how many choices we have.
00:03:43.840 | So one enters into the grocery store
00:03:46.160 | and becomes almost overwhelmed
00:03:48.420 | by the number of choices,
00:03:50.300 | how many different kinds of ketchup,
00:03:51.620 | how many different kinds of cereals.
00:03:53.420 | I mean, just as a small anecdote,
00:03:55.900 | and then you multiply that exponentially in all of life,
00:03:59.600 | and it becomes paralyzing for us.
00:04:02.180 | That's the end result of idolatry.
00:04:04.940 | Burnout, depression, feeling of discouragement,
00:04:09.820 | losing hope, feeling unsatisfied,
00:04:13.820 | all those personal emotions are natural results
00:04:18.660 | of idols that don't satisfy.
00:04:21.500 | - Amen, yeah.
00:04:22.340 | And speaking of things we think we can control,
00:04:25.100 | we live in a digital age.
00:04:26.580 | We are lured to our smartphones,
00:04:28.460 | a world that we can completely shape and mold
00:04:30.780 | into our own personal preferences.
00:04:33.040 | And it draws our attention, obviously.
00:04:35.020 | A 2014 study published
00:04:36.820 | in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions
00:04:39.440 | titled "The Invisible Addiction"
00:04:41.980 | concluded that the average college student
00:04:44.260 | now spends nine hours a day on their phones.
00:04:48.220 | Knowing why God created us,
00:04:49.900 | when you hear this, how do you respond?
00:04:53.540 | - Yeah, and so two thoughts
00:04:55.700 | at different ends of the spectrum here.
00:04:57.780 | I mean, the first thought is that technology
00:05:00.940 | as an object in its own right
00:05:02.960 | ought to be viewed with deep respect
00:05:05.860 | and some sense of awe as to what we are able to accomplish.
00:05:11.540 | That technology and the digital revolution
00:05:15.660 | that we've experienced in the last 15 years
00:05:18.180 | is not a creation of the devil.
00:05:20.020 | We need to be careful of a kind of technophobia,
00:05:24.020 | a fear of technology.
00:05:26.340 | On the other hand, and there's always the other side also,
00:05:30.820 | the blessings and the curses,
00:05:32.860 | that which is good in every age
00:05:35.820 | can be used in a fashion that is actually destructive.
00:05:39.860 | And so technology, by the sheer power of its abilities,
00:05:44.860 | draws us to it.
00:05:48.500 | So it's not that long ago
00:05:52.020 | that we were first discovering personal computers.
00:05:56.900 | I mean, it's only been 20 years or so
00:06:00.260 | since the personal computer revolution.
00:06:02.460 | And now just the speed with which that revolution
00:06:06.120 | has taken shape and form for most of us
00:06:08.900 | is that we recognize now we've got this powerful
00:06:11.860 | little thing in our hands called the smartphone,
00:06:15.340 | and it promises to give us access
00:06:18.220 | to the whole world instantaneously.
00:06:21.380 | And you could, you know, standing back in 100 years,
00:06:24.580 | if the Lord parries, or if you had lived 100 years ago
00:06:28.900 | and been able to see the future for whatever reason,
00:06:31.620 | you would have recognized,
00:06:33.260 | gosh, that would be a very powerful idol.
00:06:37.020 | You could see why people would be attracted to it,
00:06:39.420 | drawn to it.
00:06:41.020 | It gives great power.
00:06:42.620 | It gives great access.
00:06:44.340 | But of course, it's also addictive.
00:06:47.220 | I mean, even the statistics there, nine hours a day,
00:06:51.700 | suggest that there is something almost magnetic
00:06:54.460 | that draws us to it, that we can't live without it.
00:06:58.260 | And so though I'd be cautious of using language
00:07:02.180 | that has become our own god,
00:07:05.460 | the addictive dynamic involved with it
00:07:08.740 | ought to teach us something about our own hearts.
00:07:11.580 | It tells us, in part, that we do need
00:07:15.380 | to have access to others,
00:07:17.500 | that it seems to be promises the relationships to others
00:07:21.820 | instantaneously on our own terms,
00:07:24.060 | conveniently when we want it, where we want it.
00:07:27.060 | Again, you have all those dynamics of choice and control.
00:07:31.140 | And so youth pastors that have taken kids out
00:07:36.140 | and said, "We're gonna have a technology-free day,"
00:07:40.620 | have really often experienced this kind of new world,
00:07:45.620 | helped the kids experience something
00:07:50.100 | they've never experienced before.
00:07:52.020 | That is that there actually is a richness to life
00:07:55.420 | without technology,
00:07:57.340 | and helps you see technology then in a different light.
00:08:00.980 | So I think sometimes when you pull the idol out,
00:08:04.940 | there is a great sense of loss,
00:08:07.900 | and that's true when you pull a smartphone away
00:08:11.500 | from a teenager that lives on it for nine hours a day.
00:08:14.700 | - Yes, and that is very important.
00:08:16.420 | Idols are something we can't imagine living without.
00:08:19.320 | Let's pick up here tomorrow.
00:08:21.280 | Thank you for joining us on the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:08:23.460 | with guest Dr. Richard Lentz.
00:08:25.340 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:08:26.580 | I'll see you tomorrow.
00:08:27.680 | (upbeat music)
00:08:30.260 | (upbeat music)
00:08:32.840 | [BLANK_AUDIO]