I have been living in a place filled with Hindus and Buddhists for a while now. It’s a weird place to be. I’m not in a place where it is normal to be a Christian and I see these people worship more diligently and wholeheartedly than most Christians and it breaks my heart.
It is so hard to watch people spend their lives devoted to one or more of their thirty-three million gods. It’s even harder to make them understand that their is actually only ONE God and He is the only one to worship. It’s hard because the people just add Jesus to the list of people and things they worship; He gets added to the many. It is so sad to watch people know who Jesus is but never surrender their life to him because monotheism doesn’t make sense to them.
But what struck me more than the saddness of people worshiping objects made of plastic that get thrown into the river to rot and people never truly experience Jesus because he gets worshiped along with many is that this is NOT an Easter problem or a Hindu problem or an Indian or Nepali problem. Idolatry is an American problem too. The only differences is our idols are hidden deep in our hearts instead of being put on display for everyone to see.
We have idols too. We worship TV, sports, school, the bears or the cubs, our spouses, women or men, our bodies, food, cellphones, tablets, facebook, money, power, or any other person or thing you can imagine. These aren’t gods that we put up for others to see or are always aware of ourselves. Instead they are things we spend the our time thinking about, devoting ourselves to, and living our lives for.
Often times these things aren’t bad. It’s more about who the user is and how they use it. TV is not an idol in my life. I don’t even like it. But it is for some. Basketball used to be an idol in my life but it isn’t for everyone who played or likes the game. Good things become bad when we put the above God. And when we have idols in our life we are just like the people worshiping plastic things.
We miss out on so much of Jesus. We miss out on a life with and for him. We are just like the Hindus and Buddhist who worship stone and plastic statues.
It’s crazy to think that we can be idolaters too. It’s hard to believe it can be us. But it can and for most of us it is. Walking with God means daily surrendering our lives and idols to the Lord.
What is it that you hold above God? What is your idol? And what are you gonna do about it?
