Nathan was my favourite speaker. He combined a good amount of personal stories with intellectual discussion and yet he was our most relevant speaker. Nathan talked about idols.
Now idols can be a lot of things but there are some basic guidelines. An idol is anything that we let judge us or set conditions for our self worth. It is a perceived center of value, pleasure or power. Anything that we use to give us power, anything we use to make a standard of value or anything we use to escape from pain, is an idol.
I'm just reading something I wrote in my journal. It's fairly personal so don't use it against me.
"My biggest problem is either the fact that I want to be a hero or that I don't have enough boldness. Can being a hero be an idol? What do I gain from it? Honor, praise, love. Is it just that they each have such a high tolerance level? I don't feel like I'm getting a diminishing return. Am I being set up for a fall? But I don't really care about those things, they are just what I gain. I want to be a hero because I feel it is right, because I would want someone to do the same for me. Is that God then?
What about boldness? I gain perceived safety from cowardice. The idol would be whispering something like 'why do it, you don't have to'. I guess the idol would be apathy.
I'm not sure about this whole exercise because I don't agree with too many of societies standards. I don't care if people think I am good looking or smart or athletic, at least not as much as I used to. The main thing I do deal with is identity. Maybe that's the only thing everyone deals with. We are all just trying to find who we are. To be known."
Nathan also gave me one of my favourite jokes during Outtatown. It would be told by an African and it goes like this. To know if you should marry a girl or not, tweak your girlfriends thighs when you leave for work and when you return and they're still jiggling, you've found a good wife.
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