Don’t Be an Idol-Maker

At the end of every podcast, we like to ask our guests to share what God has been teaching them in this season of life. This week’s guest is Lake Lambert, Ph.D., He began his tenure as the 16th president of Hanover College July 1, 2015, the sixth in the past 100 years. Lambert went to Hanover from Mercer University in Macon, Ga., where he served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts since 2010.

Acts 19:23

About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there...

I've become really interested in Demetrius, the silversmith in Acts 19. It's probably not the most well-known story in the scriptures. But Acts 19 tells the story about when Paul goes and begins preaching the gospel and Ephesus that Demetrius, the silversmith, realizes what's going on in the way that most of the other citizens of Ephesus don't. 

In part because Demetrius’ vocation, his work, is that he makes idols for a living. And so he organizes all of the other idol makers in town to riot. And so for me, it's something to always think about is what does it mean to have idol-making as your vocation and what are the idols that we make as part of our own work? And how does the gospel challenge and tear them down? 

And so I'm always looking at Demetrius. And so the one hand, it's easy to dismiss him as, oh, well, he makes idols. But for me, it's the holding up of a mirror of sorts where I can catch myself saying, “I think I'm really important because I do this.” But now I have to check that my work is truly serving God and not just an idol that I’ve made for myself.