The more I love God, the more human I become, for I am made in God’s image. My humanity mirrors the One who made me. If on the other hand, my love is primarily for {the church or my work or someone other than God, I begin to lose my humanness, for I have set up an idol in the place of my Creator, and I begin to resemble the idol. My humanity is tied closely to divinity, for to be human is to be like God in whose image I am created. The more God-like I am, the more I am myself. But the more myself I am does not necessarily mean the more God-like I am. For often in striving to be myself, I can be setting up another idol, namely a false image of who I think I am. I find myself in God, but I do not necessarily find God in finding myself. The self cultivated can end up being the most pernicious of all idols. But the cultivation of the love of God invariably leads to the greatest possession of myself.
