On Idolatry

I have been talking to a few friends over the past two months about something of a revelation/conviction God hit me with, and it appears that this issue is far more common than I originally thought. I have had four others confirm it so far, thus, I am now fulfilling my intention to put these thoughts into a blog.

When many of us think of idols, we tend to think of Old Testament times during which many of the neighbors of the Israelites (not to mention the Israelites themselves, at times) fashioned for themselves physical idols to worship. And then there are those who have been enlightened by good preaching or Bible-reading who realize that in the U.S. today, we may not have this type of idol per say, but we do have many things that we put before God and worship with our time and energy; some examples are sports, school, work, celebrities, video games, etc. Well, God convicted me, in October, I believe, of worshiping another sort of idol. It is difficult to describe really, but I will give it my best, as I now believe that many reading this will relate.

Do you find yourself always looking forward to things? Are you constantly thinking, "If I can just make it to the weekend," or "It's only three weeks until my family comes"? We do this with all kinds of things like retreats, vacations, holidays, graduations, and the list goes on. I found myself thinking these kinds of things about graduation, vacations, and eventually just weekends, but the times when I went in with that mentality, I always came out frustrated and discontented. The problem was a sort of idolatry. I was looking to an event or experience to provide me with contentment and fulfillment, and you should all now know where this is going. ONLY God can provide the contentment that we long for. Only he can satisfy that longing that runs soul-deep. There is nothing wrong with looking forward to something, but there is wrong to expect that something to provide you with joy. God is a jealous God, and he will let you become frustrated and unfulfilled if you try to fill his place with other things.

My good friend Matt Roe informed me that Pastor Mark Driscoll has spoken to this topic as well with good advice. When you plan, and when you look forward to things, always plan and look also to the day after. That helps put things in perspective. Graduation was great, but part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was that when I woke up the next morning, I wasn't surprised or disillusioned because graduation was over; I didn't expect anything from that day that it couldn't give me. What I woke to the next morning was the peace and joy of knowing an immutable God.

What happens when we live our lives looking forward is a cycle of disappointment that leaves us constantly counting on the next thing to sate us and constantly missing out on the present. It is a rather ingenious scheme (also mentioned in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis) used to keep us from living a meaningful life.