Remembering something I wanted to share from Nepal. One day we went to a Buddhist temple to pray for the people that go there. They were painting one of the statues that they worship. There were some other guys cleaning and washing the other gods beside it. In Nepal almost all the little stores on the streets have idols of all the different gods they worship. I made a little joke saying, “wouldn’t it be fun to go to the store and buy the idol you worship?” It was really interesting to think about. The people here worship all these gods and idols that their hands physically create. We watched them construct, paint, and wash their gods. How can they do this? It seems so simple to me that this clearly makes no sense.
But thinking back now, how are we much different? Do we still have idols in our lives that we let get between us and our relationship with God? Anything that takes our focus off of God can become an idol. We literally go to the store sometimes and buy idols. They don’t look like little figurines though. Sometimes they come in the shape of TV’s, videogames, cars, motorcycles, clothing, food, and homes. They are often disguised in the non-material world as careers, relationships, success, and fame. When we let things consume our mind and control our focus of each day these things become idols in our lives. They wash and paint their statues. We wash our cars and paint our houses. The idols we have are often very good things. But we can’t let them take priority over our relationship with God. El Shaddai has been really great this month! This last week I got to use some of my “farming skills” and fixed fence. We recently started making gifts for the children. The “boys” are giving the girls a dollhouse, and the “girls” are giving soccer goals to the boys. I have really enjoyed getting to do some crafty woodwork by making some of the furniture for the house.
I can’t believe Christmas is just around the corner. We have decorated all the houses and have had many Christmas activities for the children, but it is still very surreal. Being that this is the first Christmas away from home and the fact that it doesn’t snow but rains everyday.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Our final financial deadline is January 1st. I am still a ways off from meeting that.
David
