“False images are as old as the Bible. Ask any number of people in the West what standard they live by, and a majority will swear by the Ten Commandments. Ask those same people to name those commandments, and you’ll be greeted with embarrassed confusion.
Though a few could recite it, one commandment that is relevant to our discussion is, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” (Exodus 20:4, 5a.) Now, we all know that this is the one that’s easy to keep. Gone are the days when idols of wood or stone had any hold on our imaginations. To give special power to a lifeless, miniature statue would be ridiculous. We’ve come a long way from ancient superstitions, and this prohibition against idol worship clearly doesn’t apply to our modern sensibilities.
But what if the idol cited here is equated with the false mask we show the world? Could we then say so glibly that we don’t worship false idols? What if the deepest reading of this law isn’t so concerned with offending God, but instead with offending our truest self, which is the highest gift from the creator?”
Paul Radamacher, in “A Spiritual Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe”
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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.