Desert Soul

My team is currently doing a study by Tim Keller during our Word time together.  Throughout the past couple of weeks, I have been continuously convicted, especially during the week when we talked about idolatry.  In a country where people display statues of gods in homes or offices, it’s easy to think that idolatry has not crept into your own heart; however, just because there is no tangible, golden statue doesn’t mean that idolatry isn’t present.

One day while I was preparing for our study, this truth hit me right in the gut as I scanned down the list of possible areas of idolatry in our lives… there’s power idolatry, approval idolatry, comfort idolatry, control idolatry, work idolatry, achievement idolatry, materialism idolatry, family idolatry, relationship idolatry, image idolatry… and that’s only a sampling.  Idolatry is defined as having an excessive, inordinate desire for any of these things—many of which are good things.  However, whenever they become the best thing, we’re in the danger zone.  For me personally, I never realized how much approval from others—be it in relationships with friends or family, in my studies, in my work, or most recently in relationships with students—has given me a disproportionate sense of worth compared to where my true worth is found:  in the Son. 

Today I was reflecting on this truth as I was listening to a band that my teammate, Kelley, introduced me to—The Rend Collective Experiment.  (I highly recommend them, by the way!)  They have a song that I love called “Desert Soul,” the chorus of which really encourages me:

"All that I am is dry bones without you, Lord, a desert soul.  I am broken but running towards you, God.  You make me whole."

As I listened to those words, I realized a connection with what we had been studying about idolatry:  if we can replace the words “Lord” or “God” in these verses with anything else… if we need something else for these statements to be true, then we are dangerously close to serving idols.  Only He can satisfy us.  All other things that claim to give wholeness only offer counterfeit, short-lived fulfillment.  

The words of the Father to idol-ridden Israel still have a painfully relevant ring for us today:

“Hear, O my people, and I will warn you—

if you would but listen to me, O Israel!

You shall have no foreign gods among you;

         you shall not bow down to an alien god.

I am the Lord your God,

         who brought you up out of Egypt.

         Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”

                           --Psalm 81:8-10

He promises to fill us, if only we would but look to Him for our satisfaction and not to foreign gods, if only we would hear the steady beckoning of the Perfect Father: 

“If my people would but listen to me,

         if Israel would follow my ways,

how quickly would I subdue their enemies

         and turn my hand against their foes!

Those who hate the Lord would cringe before Him,

         and their punishment would last forever.

But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;

         with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

                           --Psalm 81:13-16

He gives PERFECT satisfaction.  Why then, do we so quickly turn to things that can never compare to what He offers?  What person could possibly give us the love that trumps the love He gives?  What human recognition or praise could compare to the approval we receive from Him?  What earthly pleasure could come close to the joy and pleasure of intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe? 

Are we neglecting the “honey from the rock”?  Are we running to Him to quench our desert souls, or are we turning elsewhere for imitation wholeness, only to be left thirsty?  May we forsake whatever idols have crept into our lives and be filled by Fullness Himself!  May we seek the One in whom we can find true, abundant life!

“The lions may grow weak and hungry,

         but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”

                           --Psalm 34:10