Book Review: Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller

"Every human being must live for something.  Something must capture our hearts, minds, and imagination" 

What are you living for?  Your family? Your career?  Your things?  In Timothy Keller's book, Counterfeit Gods, he teaches what happens when you take things that are in and of themselves good and turn them into ultimate things.


Keller lists a series of questions that help us to identify the idols in our lives:

"What, if we lost it all, would make life not worth living? What makes us uncontrollably angry, anxious, or despondent?  What racks us with guilt that we cannot shake? What do we fear the most? What do we daydream about? What are our fondest dreams?"

This book was a big eye opener for me.  I had no idea how many "things" I turn to in order to try to fulfill the never ending desire within me for something more.

If I could just get this new iPad or iPhone, or other gadget, gizmo, thing, etc, then I would finally feel like I had everything I needed.  If I could just be a good husband to my wife and a good father to my child, then I wouldn't want for anything else.  What I failed to realize, however, was what would happen if any of those things were suddenly taken away.

What happens when the gadgets are broken and/or stolen?  What happens when my wife and child don't live up to the extremely high expectations I build up for them in my head?  What happens if, God forbid, my family is taken from me suddenly?

Obviously some idols will have a larger hold on us than others.  If my gadgets are taken from me, I'll be angry, anxious, and possibly a bit despondent, but if my family is taken from me, life would definitely not seem worth living anymore.

So how do we fix this?  Keller states:

"Idols cannot simply be removed.  They must be replaced.  If you only try to uproot them, they grow back; but they can be supplanted.  By what?  By God himself, of course.  But by God we do not mean a general belief in his existence.  Most people have that, yet their souls are riddled with idols.  What we need is a living encounter with God."

 Sometimes having your heart torn open is painful, but it's only through this type of deep introspection that we are shown where things/others have become our God.  I highly recommend this book to all Christians who not only recognize the never ending need for more, but long to find a way to quench that thirst.

"But how much more can we look at his sacrifice on the Cross and say to God 'Now, we know that you love us.  For you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from us.' When the magnitude of what he did dawns on us, it makes it possible finally to rest our hearts in him rather than in anything else."

May God grant me eyes with which to see the cross in this way and turn from my idols to the one who is truly worthy of my focus and adoration. Amen.