To Live is Christ — looking down on vanity

Maybe I’m getting old, but it seems to me that a lot of people spend a lot of energy and money on things that are entirely useless. For instance, a woman with a young family and not a lot of money spends nearly $100 a month to keep her fingernails looking attractive. An elderly person clips coupons and saves them, boxes full, but never uses them for anything.

Yet who am I to talk? I read these verses again and did some digging. 

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Psalm 24:3–5)

The phrase “who has not lifted up his soul to an idol” is translated differently in other Bible versions. I checked it out. To “lift up” is usually translated that way. It means “to bear or carry,” but it suggests another phrase —  “to lift the life.” This is an idiom that means “to long for” or “desire strongly.” Do people long for or desire idols?

I investigated that word too. An “idol” is translated “vanity” in some versions, “falsehood” or “lies” in others. The Hebrew word means “emptiness, vanity, falsehood, nothingness.” However, one version translates this as “a statue of a god” which limits interpretation to stone or wood idols.

Depending on which version I pick, I could avoid any conviction in my own heart. I don’t have stone idols in my house. I also think that worshiping a created god is sheer nonsense. That lets me off the hook.

However, if I combine “to desire strongly” with “nothingness” then wanting my home team to win a hockey game could put a blight on my spiritual condition and make my soul unfit for worship. So could many other activities that I enjoy.

As I said, who am I to judge? I have a passion for art, graphic design, and making quilts. None of these things are eternal. In that sense, they are vain and qualify as useless and even emptiness. The person who spends $100 a month on nail polish and manicures could easily scorn my fabric purchases. The person who saves but does not use coupons could ask me if I am going to live long enough to use up those scraps that I save.

Unless I keep my desires for these things under Christ’s control, as I said, who am I to judge?