Idols

Idols make us feel important [and thus] can consume us. Idols make us feel, as long as we worship them, that we stand above the crowd. Idols promise us the ability to rise above ourselves. [They] give us a larger identity, allowing us to define ourselves through the group. Idols tell us nothing else matters except ourselves and the idol. 

Sacrifice gives us life. Sacrifice for others gives life and makes community possible; it frees us from idols. We must accept such sacrifice is hard and lonely. Only the small mundane acts of kindness for neighbors and friends and family [have the power] to save us. Mothers and fathers, who have put their careers on hold, know this power, however hard it is to lose the identity and status that come with work. Those who stop to care for the sick or disabled know this.

There is no shortage of lives ruined by idols. Sacrifice for idols leaves us hollow and empty. And if we do not let go, idols lead to a life so devoid of meaning that only slavish devotion to the idol keeps us from facing the emptiness. Those who spend their final years waiting forlornly for a call from children they never bothered to know because they were busy building careers, must peer into the empty face of the idol they worshiped. Idols, when they finish with us, discard us.

from Losing Moses on The Freeway