The Real Deal
The more I read of this devotional, the more I appreciate the author, Walt Wiltschek. He is a savvy shopper. Yesterday, he mentioned the grocery store produce bargain bin as a likely place to find inexpensive healthy foods . . . or a bag of mold. Today, he mentions $20 “Rolex” watches offered by a city street vendor. Those probably aren’t real Rolexes, and they probably are not worth $20. I looked up the prices of real Rolex watches, and they often cost in the 4- to 6-digit dollar range!
The Bible verses for today point out the foolishness of worshiping idols made by humans when God is the one who made the mountains and waters, all of our world. There is no comparison. Obviously, God is the “real deal” who deserves our worship.
Do you sometimes wonder what those Old Testament folks were thinking? I do. I think it sounds silly to give some inanimate object all of the devotion that God deserves. I cannot visualize any of us, today, sitting in front of a statue and getting mentally, emotionally, or spiritually involved with it.
But, with modern-day application, I do see our society doing something just like that. How often have people become emotionally affected by what they are staring at–in their phones, on their screens–becoming so involved with social media, biased misinformation, or entertainment (wholesome and otherwise) that they turn their devotion away from God and toward their scrolling or newsfeed? (It’s even called feed! Are we being lured? Oh, most certainly! And often most willingly!) Sometimes these distractions lead us to turn against each other, which is not the Jesus way.
Wiltschek asks in his conclusion for today, “What budget solutions and imitators do we turn to rather than following the sometimes-costly but ultimately satisfying call of God?”
I need to be mindful of what I’m turning away from whenever I choose to turn toward a focus. I want to be turning toward what God is calling me to do. As Pastor Pam mentioned in her wonderful list of “Rs” in Sunday’s sermon, we need to “Return to the you-shaped work that God needs you to do.” That may not be as convenient in the moment as some of those screen distractions, but it will most assuredly be more satisfying because God is the “real deal”!
Gina, I have not heard the term "complexity bias" before, but it makes perfect sense the way you explain it. We tend to find comfort in the solid feel of a black-and-white world, one in which we know we are the ones in the right, and the "others" are in the wrong. Sadly, we can wind up swallowing a lot of simple lies that way, being easily duped, as you say. It's harder and smarter to realize that there's a lot more gray out there--and to accept that we cannot understand everything. Even when we reason and try to comprehend, as I believe we should do, some paradoxes remain a mystery. Deuteronomy 29:29 helps me feel more comfortable with that: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever, to observe all the words of this law."