I started reading the book Medicine as Ministry by Margaret Mohrmann because of a recommendation by another blogger. Mohrmann struck a very interesting point that I just had to grab hold of and expand upon.
As human beings we are all made to worship something. We all have this God-shaped hole in our hearts. We attempt to fill it with things that we think of as being good, like passions for our jobs, caring for our family, even our health. But if we fill that space with anything else than God we end up feeling empty and unsatisfied.
People that aren't religious might scoff at that and think that it doesn't apply to them, but I disagree with that. Show me a person who doesn't worship something and I'll show you a pig that flies. Worshiping doesn't entail shoving your nose into the ground and prostrating yourself before a higher being. Worshipping doesn't mean singing pretty songs or clapping your hands rhythmically. What worship means is that you place something at the center of your life and everything you do revolves around what you have designated as the nucleus of your existence, whether it was subconsciously or not.
Mohrmann made the comparison that our pursuit of longevity in life was similar to the Israelites at the base of Mt Sinai building a calf of gold. And in the practice of medicine many people idolize health, making sure their emotional and spiritual healths are consummate in order to prolong their physical health.
"Evidence of the idolatry of health in our society is clear, manifesting
itself in our fickle, shifting obsessions with diet and exercise machines
and with jogging down every primrose path to perfect health, whether it
is the path of vitamin C or brewer's yeast or no yeast at all or oat bran or
whatever the latest 'cure du jour'. We have all been treated to, and have
perhaps participated in, the spectacle of reasonable, pragmatic citizens of
the last half of the twentieth century fearing and finding carcinogens
everywhere, in much the same way our ancestors feared and found demons
and witches everywhere."
Now I am certainly not saying that medicine is bad, nor is practicing a healthy lifestyle. But we must realize that using medicine and being healthy is not a means to an end, but rather they serve the purpose of keeping our current lives healthy and full so that we can better perform our Father's will. Healthiness looks different in everybody. And there are so many options that you can choose in order to live healthily.
In my own life I have fallen into the trap of idolizing health. After quitting soccer two years ago, I've had to do the whole fitness thing on my own. I thought that if I ate the magic foods, did the magic workouts, and looked a certain way, only then would I would find happiness. But happiness, true joy in life, is only found in God. I realize now that my darkest times of thinking in this contorted way was when I was farthest from God. When you have a good healthy relationship with your Lord and Savior, everything else will not necessarily fall into place, but you will be centered and purposed in the right direction.
So, brothers and sisters, let us pray that we be knowledgeable and wary of the many idols in our world that threaten to come between our relationships with our Heavenly Father!
P.S. Another great book that talks about the idols in life that goes along with this same message is Gods at War, by Kyle Idleman.
