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You Are What You Love

Last week we mentioned the book You Are What You Love. The book is an attempt to help us revisit some of the observations of Augustine of Hippo. Augustine rightly noted that our loves direct our lives often more than our beliefs or our aspirations. We can say a number of things that express this reality. This idea has been expressed in many different ways such as “you become what you worship”.

Contemporary pop-wisdom likes to encourage people to “follow your dreams” or “pursue your passions” as a way of finding happiness and meaning. We should be careful with such advice because while the aphorisms sound clean and pure in reality they work out in unintended ways.

• The addict loves his drug.
• The wife beater loves control.
• Kings and Raiders fans love misery 🙂

If I am passionate about chocolate cake I may become diabetic and no long be able to enjoy it. If I am passionate about my looks I might impoverish my family by purchasing clothing.

If we see our loves and passions as directing our lives our main problem can be seen as disordered passions and loves.

Passions and loves are often seen as things in themselves, forces or gods that we are the victims of. Others will note that they develop often within our own stories. An insecure childhood produces a love of security and control. We complain that the beauty magazines in the grocery store check-out are creating passions for unrealistic body images for girls. Are our passions simply voices of the gods whispering to us through our feelings or are they psychological reactions to the inputs of our childhood?

CS Lewis in the beginning of Mere Christianity created an argument for God based on the fact that we have a hunger for something that this world cannot satisfy, therefore God must exist because we have a hunger for Him and a life that cannot be found in this world.

This business about loving is not so simple as some Facebook aphorism that suggests that wanting leads to having and having always and simply satisfies.

The Book of Ruth and Wanting

We’ve been working through the book of Ruth and one of the ways we might approach the book could be to ask what each of the characters want.

We might begin by looking at Naomi who is one of the principle characters if not THE thread around which the story unfolds.

What did Naomi want?  Continue reading →