Thought About Your Idols Lately?
If you are like me, you don’t think about idolatry very often. Typically, we will think of it when we read something about Israel in the Old Testament, or when some pastor preaches from the Old Testament. It’s easy, then, to assume that all idolatry involves man-made statues that are a part of people’s worship. Or we think about the first two commandments which warn against making any image that we worship as an idol.
We were created to worship God and to rule over all of creation. But when mankind sinned, instead of worshiping God, man disobeyed God and all of life changed for us. Instead of what God had intended for us–that we would worship him and reign over all creation–we have reversed the order. We try to use God for our own benefit and we serve the created things. For example, Anne Lamott pointed out this pattern when she said: “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
Since most of us don’t bow down to, or worship any statues, what do we do that can be called idolatry today? Think of idolatry as having to do with the desires of the heart. Where do we focus our energy? What has captured our imaginations? On what are we building our lives? For us today, real idolatry is identified by looking at where we focus our love, our attention, and our energy. And then compare that with how much of our love, attention and energy is focused on worshiping God.
Foundational to all modern forms of modern idolatry is the worship of “me.” It’s the focus on what I want, even what I must have. Think of the person addicted to a drug. Addiction means that all of life is focused on getting the next fix. A milder form of idolatry might be one’s work addiction and the obsession with accumulating wealth. I talked with a man whose goal in life was to be a millionaire by age forty. He succeeded, but in the process lost his wife and his kids still don’t speak to him. Money was his idol.
What about our focus on sports, or on celebrities. The favorite magazine in my waiting room is “People.” We must keep up on what goes on in “peoples” lives. Anything that controls our time and attention has become our idol.
Someone from another culture where shrines and altars are prevalent was commenting on her perception of America’s idolatry. She said we worship food, for that was clear from all the restaurants we have. She called our stadiums and arenas our form of shrines. And the biggest idol we have is our TV. She said that everybody’s family room is arranged to give homage to the TV. That’s an interesting take on our culture today, and it makes one thing about where our focus lies.
Question: What are some of your “idols?”