March 20, Wednesday ~ Giving Up Idolizing

Giving Up Idolizing

• Philippians 2:1-11

• Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Today, we give up idolizing. I am struggling with this one. I don’t have much experience in idolizing a person or a relationship. I am unsure what that says about me except that my life and relationships may be dull and straightforward. However, there is one slight exception.

I was pretty infatuated with Julie Andrews when she played Mary Poppins in the 1964 movie, but I was utterly smitten when she played Maria in The Sound of Music. I immediately went into full idolizing mode and learned all of her songs by heart. I thought that anything she touched must surely turn into gold. Because of her movies, I fell in love with musical stage productions and I wanted to be just like Julie Andrews. I even cut my hair short ( just like Julie) before I went off to college. When I was hiking the Tour du Mt Blanc (142 mile trek through the alps)  and we hiked from France into Italy and finally crossed into Switzerland, I couldn’t help but break into song at the mountain pass, “The hills are alive, with the sound of music…ahhhhahhhahhhhahhhh.”

But in 1997, she came crashing down off the pedestal I made for her when she had vocal cord surgery and it went all wrong. She was never going to be able to sing again. I even found out that she wore a wig in her movies after I had cut my long hair for her? How could she? She was my idol! I guess that is what you get when you are only “practically perfect in every way!”

My reaction to her human experiences is embarrassing. Compassion should have been my first thought when I found out she would never be able to sing again, but I am pretty sure it wasn’t. I did not allow her to have a fault or a misstep. I could, but she couldn’t. It would be ok if I had just admired her but I had stepped over the line into idolizing her. My disappointment in her was skewed because I held her to a higher standard than I held myself.

How do we know if we have fallen into the trap of idolizing someone? Here are Ressler’s four points to consider if we unfairly put people on pedestals.

• We expect them to be gifted in every way

• We expect them to be someone they are not

• We expect them to share the same affinities as us

• We expect them to be perfect and never offend us.

I admire Julie Andrews for all she has continued to do with her life. I still believe that the hills are alive with the sound of music, and I continue to wonder, how do you catch a moonbeam in your hand? What about you?