love is all we need? (Counterfeit gods)

In the early days of my pastoral ministry, I met a woman named sally, who had the misfortune of being born beautiful. Even in childhood she saw the power she could wield with her physical attractiveness. At first she used her beauty to manipulate others, then they used it to manipulate her. She came to feel she was powerless and invisible unless some man was in love with her. She could not bear to be alone. As a result she was willing to remain in relationships with men who were abusive. She had come to look to me for the kind of affirmation that only God could provide. Making an idol out of love may mean allowing the lover to exploit you and abuse you.

Jacob in the bible showed a man overwhelmed with emotional and sexual longing for a woman, Rachel. Why? Jacob's life was empty. He never had his father's love, he had lost his beloved mother's love and certainly had no sense of God's love and care. Then he beheld the most beautiful woman he had ever see. He thought "If I have her something would be right in my miserable life. It would fix things." All the longings in his heart for affirmation and meaning were fixed on Rachel.

The "Romantic solution", the self glorification needed in man's innermost nature, is like what Jacob did, and looked for in the love partner. It is to fix all spiritual and moral needs onn one individual....in other words the love object is God. Man has reached for a "thou" when the world-view of the great religious community overseen by God had died. What is it that we really want when we elevate the love partner to the position of God? We WANT redemption - nothing less.

Popular Music and Art of our society calls us to keep doing it (look for redemption through finding love), to load our deepest needs of our hearts for significance and transcedence into romantic love. "You're nobody until somebody loves you" was a popular song. And we all take it literally. But when our expectations and hopes reach that point, "the love object IS GOD". No other HUMAN being is qualified for that role, No one can live up to that!

think about it.

Adapted from "Counterfeit Gods" by Timothy Keller, educated at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary. Author of 'The Prodigal God' and 'Counterfeit gods'