Understanding the Importance of the Order of Things | Week Two
Last week we began to discuss the importance of getting things in the correct order. Especially we noted that we are firstly to love God and then to love people.
We looked at Augustine’s idea of sin being identified by loving the wrong things, or loving the right things but in the wrong order.
There is nothing wrong with loving our work, but if
In our contemporary society our love for interacting with others on social media may become compulsive, spoiling actual face to face friendships.
Our disordered loves, these idolatries, are not easily discerned. It is actually very hard to work out what is of ultimate importance to us by simply asking ourselves. Often when we have disordered loves, we are naively unaware of the disorder!
We may think, “I am living for and loving God.” However, the way to find out if that is true, is to ask ourselves some key questions:
“What is it that we cannot live without?”
“What thing, if absent from our life, would potentially take away our reasons to live?”
Our deepest emotions in response to these questions – our anxiety, fear or despair will point us to our “true god.” What we love the most will cause us the greatest unease if we do not have it. The loss may lead to anger, depression even resentment – toward any obstacle or person that stands in the way of us possessing it; despair or hopelessness if we cannot have it, even a sense of futility.
Again, the sobering question for us is, “Do we have our loves in the right order?”
Blessings
Brian
What are our idols, the things that we place in first place, that should not be in that elevated position?
How can our idolatry breed idols in our young people’s lives?