Book Review: Breaking the Idols of Your Heart

The book of Ecclesiastes challenges the way we view the world. Twenty-Eight times in the book we read that life is meaningless. This is the assessment of what life is like under the sun. When the phrase “under the sun” is used the book is pointing to the fact that life as we know it, life apart from the reality of God, is meaningless. It is Ecclesiastes that Dan Allender and Tremper Longman use as the starting point for the book Breaking the Idols of your Heart: How to Navigate the Temptations of Life.

I picked up this book because I am going to be speaking at a retreat in August on the subject of idolatry and a friend recommended that I read this book in preparation. Allender and Longman use Ecclesiastes as the rubric for breaking seven idols that we struggle with as humans. 

… you don’t have to bow down before a statue in order to participate in perverse worship. Ecclesiastes reminds us that idol worship often takes a more subtle form. To the author of Ecclesiastes, the pursuit of money or power, or any object is the same as bowing down before Baal. (p. 15)

 

This book is written in order to help the reader identify and tear down the idols of our hearts. It asks us to acknowledge the deep dissatisfaction we have with the things we are chasing.

The idols that the authors deal with are: Power, Relationships, Work/Money, Pleasure, Wisdom, Spirituality, and Immortality. Each chapter begins with the story of a couple, Noah and Joan Adamson. Their story is a lens for us to see how subtle idolatry really can be in our lives. As their story progresses over the course of the book we see them (and sometimes other people) deal with each of the seven idols the book addresses. Allender and Longman have done a great job of weaving the stories with the content of each chapter.

Each chapter moves from the story to addressing the particular issue. Why is it that we long for things like power, relationships, pleasure, wisdom, etc. Then on the terms of Ecclesiastes we see how meaningless these things can be under the sun. Our efforts to have power and control are futile and frustrating. Relationships “are marred by fights, abuse, neglect, and loneliness.” (p.54) We may work very hard but there is no assurance that we will be recognized. Money cannot protect us from evil. Pleasure doesn’t meet our deepest desires. Wisdom lets us down. Spirituality is simply a way to cope without knowing God. Death laughs in the face of Immortality. Having dealt with the pitfalls and limits of each of these seven idols, each chapter ends with addressing how the person and work of Jesus re-casts these seven topics into their proper light. If there is one short-coming to the book it is that these sections are too short. Breaking the Idols of Your Heart calls us to view life not “under the sun” but rather “above the sun.”

… the above the sun perspective charges all aspects of our earthly life with new and everlasting significance, so that

- control leads to surrender to God’s will.
- relationships lead to trust in God’s love.
- work leads to laboring for God’s Kingdom.
- pleasure leads to a hunger for God’s coming.
- wisdom leads to a humble curiosity to know God.
- spirituality leads to embracing God’s wild heart.
- life leads to a joyous celebration of death and resurrection.

The lesson of Ecclesiastes is that Christ makes the difference. Our lives are far from meaningless, because he infuses our lives with meaning. (p. 181)

I recommend this book.