Counterfeit Gods

I don't know if you've ever read the book "Counterfeit Gods" by Tim Keller, but you should. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

The human heart is an idol factory. We take good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turn them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives because we think they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.

The very things upon which these people were building all their happiness turned to dust in the hands because they had built all their happiness upon them.

An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol.

An idol is whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts, "If I have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning, then I'll know I have value, then I'll feel significant and secure."

Under the pressure of fame and celebrity all your character flaws and miseries become twice a bad as they were before.

People who have never suffered in life have less empathy for others, little knowledge of their own shortcomings and limitations, no endurance in the face of hardship, and unrealistic expectations for life.

Idols capture our imagination, and we can locate them by looking at our daydreams. What do we enjoy imagining? What are our fondest dreams? We look to our idols to love us, to provide us with value and a sense of beauty, significance, and worth.

The most painful times in our lives are times in which our idols are being threatened or removed.