When Is It an Idol?

There are certain things in the world that practically speaking we need or want. Some of them can become idols, however. Money, relationships, material objects, social or business positions, etc. So how do you know when you have turned something into an idol?

The most obvious answer is that when you are unwilling to turn something over to the Holy Spirit, it is an idol for you. It has become an end in itself rather than a means of supplying you or supporting you or putting you in a certain place at a certain time so you can fulfill your role as a teacher of God. When something is an end for you rather than a means, you think you need it for your salvation. For example, an ambitious person may turn over everything in their life to the Holy Spirit – except their career goals. They still think they need to attain a certain position to be successful (fulfilled), to have recognition (love), or to make a lot of money (security). In this circumstance, their career is a replacement for God – it is an idol. They do not see themselves as being in the position they are so that the Holy Spirit can work through them there. They see attaining the position, or the position itself, as meaningful in itself.

Another sign you have idols is when you cannot live in the present. You are always setting goals and striving. This means you think that you have to attain some goal or object to be happy, at peace, fulfilled. When you have truly turned your life over to the Holy Spirit you live in the present because you aren’t seeking. The future becomes an extension of your present peace and you do not concern yourself with it.

A relationship is an idol when you feel you cannot live without a certain person. It is an idol when you insist another “fulfill your needs” to remain in your life. Whenever you look to a body/ego to supply something for you it is an idol because the real purpose of relationships is to remember Oneness by overlooking the body/ego. The people in your life are there to be your teachers in Oneness and to lovingly support you in your role as a teacher of God.

Everything you need to fulfill your role in the world will be supplied. Trusting this is how idols fall because you don’t need to seek for what you already have.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
Isn't our individual consciousness an idol, a dream we are having as a replacement for our abstract One Self?

Here's a related quote from ACIM
CLARIFICATION OF TERMS

Copyrighted© 2007 by the Foundation for [A Course in Miracles]
INTRODUCTION
C-in.1. 4 The structure of "individual consciousness" is essentially irrelevant because it is a concept representing the "original error" or the "original sin."

I guess maybe it is no longer an idol when we let the Holy Spirit use it to learn our lessions in forgiveness and go beyond it.
7:23 PM
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