Think for a moment about the word idolatry. What images does it bring up for you?
Maybe it's the unfaithful Hebrews in Moses' time, worshipping the golden calf as Moses was coming back down Mount Sinai. Maybe it's the wicked people of Ninevah, to whom Jonah was supposed to go minister, or the people who built the tower of Babel, thinking they could build a tower to Heaven.
Maybe it's a bunch of guys with their pants on their heads, dancing around a fire and chanting in gibberish to the Great Almighty Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong.
(I'm sorry, brothers and sisters; I had three doughnuts at Sunday School today, and my imagination is a bit out of control. But hopefully you get my point.)
When we think of idolatry or idol worship, we think about rituals that took place a long time ago, and only exist today in extremely primative societies. Or we think of something we might read about in the Enquirer: cults and secret societies, and communes in the middle of nowhere, packed full of whackadoodles who have gone completely off the deep end.
Because, surely, this kind of thing isn't a problem for Christians. Right?
Ohhhhh, so wrong. Idolatry doesn't always involve midnight rituals, goat sacrifice, or a big shiny statue. You don't have to physically bow down or kneel to be worshipping an idol. You don't even have to put your pants on your head.
To be idolatrous simply means that you have put something else where God should be in your life.
And anything or anyone that you put before God is every bit as much of an idol as the Golden Calf in the book of Exodus.
Let me explain it another way:
Imagine a room. A nice, cozy room. Obviously someone with really good taste decorated it. There's a fireplace, and bookshelves, and a nice rug, a sofa, and a coffee table... and right by the fireplace is a big, comfy chair. Hanging on the wall right above the big chair, there's a sign that simply says "GOD'S CHAIR".
There's plenty of space in that room for everything that's important to you- your parents, your children, your significant other, your education, your job, your friends, how others perceive you, money, and whatever else you care about- without disturbing the big chair.
That is, if you're mindful of where you put things.
Brothers and sisters, think long and hard about how that room would look if it was yours. Because, if you want God to come into your life, you darn well better get everything and everyone else out of His chair.
God bless.
~BYR
