Teaching: My Idol

This is a long overdue post and a bit different than normal, but what is on my heart.

How often have I sat in church and listened to a sermon about idols? Or, how many times have I taught a lesson at school or church about idolatry? I can tell you, it was more than I can count on my fingers and toes combined! Most of the time, I think to myself, “Meh, there are not many things that are idols in my life. I don't worship one of those tiny statues that say made in_______ on the bottom of it. The things that do come to mind are friendships, television, and books.”

I think those three items come to mind because they are tangible. They are things that I can touch. Up until this last week, if somebody had asked if work, teaching, was my idol, my answer would have been no. I wasn't staying late at work; papers were not being brought home to grade; and my weekends were a work free zone. So, in my head, teaching was not an idol.

This mindset began to change, when discussing with a friend why we constantly complain about different things at school. I realized that my time with my friends was constantly filled with talk about school things. That weekend, I was taking an evangelism course. The leader brought up some of the reasons Christians don't evangelize. The reasons were broken down into two categories: skill issues and heart issues. One of the heart issues was, God is not at the forefront of our conversations. The things we discuss most are what we put first, AKA idols.

A firework show began to go off in my head. Neon lit arrows were pointing it out. Yikes, I had made teaching my idol! This is idolatry and all idolatry is destructive

Here is what I saw and how I knew it had become my idol:

1.     Talking About It My conversations were clearly defined by what I do and enjoy. It had become my identity. I should, however, find my identity in Christ. I felt like I had to talk about school and also felt that complaining about certain things wasn’t to bad. Now don’t get me wrong, teaching is not just a job. It truly is a calling and sometimes requires a whole truckload of time. I sometimes get so wrapped up in talking about it because I want to make sure it is always being improved. But if I’m not careful, it will continue to be my idol factory.

2.     Money Spent I recently was doing my taxes and checking how much I spent on a great website with teacher resources. I wasn’t even phased. Now, churches here don’t give a giving statement at the end of the year, so I can’t say whether I gave more than I spent. The amount I spent isn’t actually my problem though. It is my willingness to spend it. Timothy Keller, in his introduction of the book Counterfeit gods, paints a clear picture of my dilemma, “An idol has such controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought.” The key is “without a second thought.” When I purchase the teaching resource online I easily justify the purchase. However, when giving at church I find myself questioning how much I should be putting in. This spending has become an idol.

3.     Easy Frustration The final thing that made it evident was the frustration I was feeling when I wasn’t seeing things formed the way I thought was best. God’s word calls us to put off our old self. In Ephesians 4:25-32 we are given many examples of what not to do, followed up by things that we should do. Verse 29 and 31-32 are what really got me, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace for all who hear.”²⁹ “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.³¹ Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.^32” I know the things in my heart were not following this example. My frustration was taking over.

Sometime, during the last couple years, teaching had taken over my life. The time that I used to spend thinking, talking and loving (probably a better way of stating it) about Jesus was now filled with talking, spending and frustrating constantly (again probably not the correct use of the words) about teaching. My idolatry of teaching has crumbled it cannot hold under the weight of worship that solely belongs to God. It can be easy for me to let teaching become that idol again, but for now Romans 1:18-32 is sobering reminder why I should seek to put God first and worship Him alone.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,^[a] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ 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. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.³² Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

So please pray as I seek to follow God's command to worship Him, and Him alone. I encourage you also to examine your life and see what has become your idol factory.

The City with it All

Have you ever heard the slogan "Ace the helpful Place?" Or maybe you are from the northwest and have heard the jingle from Fred Meyer, "What's on your list today? You'll find it at Fred Meyer. One stop and your on your way home." These two things are saying that anything you need will be there at the store. Ace is more of a hardware store while Fred Meyer has a range from food to lumber, clothes to plumbing.  Neither kind of store can be found in this country, granted we do have an Ace, but "helpful place" ahhh.... not so much.

As somebody who is not from here and struggles through speaking simple sentences in bahaha Indonesia, it is hard to work on any projects. It can often be heard by many expats if only there was a ___________ (fill in the blank with their home country hardware store) to pop into and browse the aisles. For myself I can easily ask a people around school for help order, but sometimes it's just that I am unable to verbalize my plan and just need to get the things myself. So again it comes back to if only Jakarta had a convenient place to find it. 

Last week was spring break and it was a relaxing time. During my time off I made the decision to go out on a motorbike ride. (no I wasn't driving) There are many reasons to enjoy motorbike rides price, speed, and different roads. The place that I was headed was over 25 kilometers away, so I had to have a midway point before continuing on to the next. The trip was a culmination of 32.7 kilometers and lasted an hour and eighteen minutes.

My Route.

If you look at the photo you will see my beginning at the green dot, the midway point is where the orange toll roads intersect, and finished at the red point. What you cannot see from this quick glance and zoomed out map is everything I saw. If you were able to zoom in on the map you would see the little old lady selling potted plants along Jalan Panjang Areti. Continue that road to find lumber for sale. Or move backwards to Jalan Kebayoran Baru and find more power tools than you can find in Ace. As I was riding through these roads it was in the streets of Jakarta that I was finding what "was on my list." Jakarta had it all the things that I needed, but I just hadn't taken the time to look for it. I had the excuses that I wouldn't understand, that somebody else could do it for me, and that it would be uncomfortable, but as stated those were just excuses.  Was the motorbike ride comfortable? Absolutely not, I mean you're riding behind some stranger on a under stuffed seat all while wearing a helmet that hundreds of others have worn. Oh and motorbikes don't get the easy route. Sometimes they have to take side roads with speed bumps every 15 feet OR detour through the rocky alley. So it is not comfortable but it is worth the ride being able to see all the sites above and even more so being able to know the city better.

Actually while walking

Old softball field

Bricks for sale

As I was riding it gave me time to think. These last couple of weeks I have been reading a book by Tim Challis about spiritual discernment. The bigger points that I had come across by the time of this ride were about knowing God's word and that you can't be discerning unless you know His word. It began to sink in, just like in Jakarta finding the things you need isn't easy, but you have to go through it to know it. Just like Jakarta it would be easy to have somebody else find the supplies for you, but you need to know His word. Just like Jakarta things can get uncomfortable, but we need to know all of it, not just the coffee mug verses even those that point out our sin. Just like Jakarta you might not understand the language, but you need to learn it.

I am thankful that there are not items all in one place, so that I could see it all.

Foxes with no legs

As always (although it has been months) please forgive the spelling/grammar errors.

Other updates:

Next year I have the opportunity to expand my experience to a new grade.

I will be finishing my 4th year here and begin my 5th in July.

Random things I made:

Eggplant parmesan (I didn't do so well)

Prayer: finishing the year strong while planning for the new grade.

Continually for the relationships with those around