What framework would you use if someone came to you struggling with anxiety? How would you begin to process that person's life and experiences? Here at Redeemer Counseling we use our gospel-centered approach to counseling. We acknowledge that as fallen beings living in a broken world, we all experience internal shame and painful events. Yet, instead of turning to God with our hurts, we all, in our sin nature, rely on ourselves and devise ways to avoid pain and cover our shame. Putting our hope and trust in something other than God is what scripture calls idolatry. Idolatry involves good desires evolving into demands that elevate things like relationships or money into ultimate things that give us identity and meaning.

Our approach understands that human problems are complex and idolatry is part of the complexity. So, it is important to identify the idols in people’s lives that are both surface and deep. Surface Idols are the easily identifiable things, people, pursuits, such as marriage or success, that we rely on to make us happy. Yet, what we often do not see are the unconscious desires that lie underneath that become disordered and misplaced on things other than God. We call these deep idols. For example, someone might make money an idol (Surface), but she does so to secure a sense of control (Deep Idol) over her life. She ultimately believes that having control is what will save her from pain and shame and probably seeks to have control in other ways as well. Each person's tendency toward a particular Deep Idol develops in the context of each person's unique personality, developmental history and experience of suffering.

This month’s tool will highlight the characteristics of four Deep Idols to help you begin to identify them in yourself and the people you work with. Next month, we will follow up with what you can do once you have identified them.