There is a Buddhists temple that sits in the Lalitpur district of Kathmandu. It is a two story white and gold building surrounded by a wall with spinning prayer wheels set into it. Every morning the sun rises over this temple. Every morning there is an old woman who shuffles up to the temple and begins marking circles around the complex. Around she goes, stooped over and slowly shuffling by, spinning each wheel as she passes, quietly chanting to herself while clutching prayer beads. I would imagine she has done this every morning for longer than I have been alive. I would imagine each morning she comes, hoping that this will remove her sins, that this will make her feel more alive and closer to her god. I would imagine she hopes to find comfort, safety, and security here in a world that is anything but that.
During our time in Nepal, a country said to be the birthplace of Buddah and containing some of the holiest sites in Hinduism, I saw a lot of stories like the one above. I stood in the middle of a hundred thousand people trying to get in line to make a sacrifice to the god of death and destruction. I saw temples of fertility where women would go seeking some way to have a baby, pleading to a god and hoping for their wish answered. As I went grocery shopping, I saw people loading a scale with money at the temple across the street. Everywhere I went, I saw idol worship. There is a part of me that hates to call it that, hates to say something that divisive. You see, I fell in love with the people in Nepal, I saw their good hearts and the way that they welcomed us, people from a far away place. Yet, I say these things because the most loving thing for me to do is speak the TRUTH that I know and the truth I know is that the temples, idols, and ceremonies are to a false god who is powerless to save here on earth or in heaven. Meanwhile, the one true God is reigning from on high, saying to His people, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” (Matthew 12:7). God is crying to His sons and daughters that they need not store up good works, ceremonial worship, or self-sacrifice in order to reach a deeper state of nirvana or to be reincarnated in a better position. No, God is saying that He sent His son for that, He sent Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice, that here on earth we may have peace with Him and by accepting that, we can be assured of an eternity in heaven (John 5:24; Romans 10:9).
As Westerners, we can read the story above and nod our heads vigorously, agreeing that it is nothing more than idol worship, agreeing we are not tempted to visit a temple or shrine for any sort of comfort. But my friends, we cannot so easily brush off idolatry as something the East practices. Idolatry is defined as extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone. We too have our idols. I would even go as far to say idolatry is even more sinister in the West because we can go years worshipping an idol and not even know it. We fill our schedules to the point of frantic busyness in an effort to reach the next thing, to find importance and security in what we can do. We seek the next material thing or relationship, telling ourselves once we get that one thing we will be happy. We live in a land that has so much, many of our other brothers around the world are left with little as a result. We seek to replace the comfort and joy that comes Sent from my iPhone
Just like there is no life found in stone idols, there is no life found in my idols. First John 5:12 tells us, “whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” God will not compete with our idols, more than that, God speaks often of the foolishness and vanity at which we chase idols (Exodus 22:20, Exodus 20:3, Isaiah 44:9-20, Romans 1:22-25). God knew we were going to struggle with this, so much so that the first of the Ten Commandments is, “you shall have no other gods before me.” So once we come face-to-face with the things we idolize, we must ask The Lord to help us overcome these things, that we may live in closer relationship and harmony with Him. We must cling to the promises of 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overcome you that is not common to man, God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape that you may endure it.”
Our last weekend in Nepal, some friends and I went up to Nagrakot, a small town with stunning views of the Himalayas. We found a place where you could walk up to a hill to a temple. Inside, the temple was dark and foreboding. Outside of the temple, though, was the most stunning views of mountains this Colorado born girl has ever seen. It looked like something out of a painting, the snow capped peaks piercing high above the clouds. It was here a friend observed that we all too often sit in dark temples while God is standing right outside, showing us something infinitely more beautiful and wonderful that He alone could create, if only we would leave our man-made security shelters and look towards Him. So today we all have a choice, continue sitting in the temple we find safe and familiar, but is fleeting, or to start handing things over to God, slowly exiting where we have been and looking up. I’ll guarantee you, we would all choose the mountain views over a dark room and someday, on eternities shore, we will view the sacrifices we made that felt all too painful in the moment as moments where we exited the darkness and entered the beautiful things only God could create.
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (?Romans? ?1?:?21-23? ESV)
