i'm actually going to try to be diligent with my blog again...i miss it. writing to me is a comfort and a santuary of sorts. i promise to do this more often. not sure if people even look to see if i'm writing anymore but that's ok. : )
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"They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves"2 Kings 17:15
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this verse has become my most beloved and hated verse i have read in a very long time (thanks to my wise mama). it's not a verse you hear a lot in church.... but it should be.
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tonight mark driscoll was on nightline talking about idolatry. his wisdom floors me. our society and culture has made so many idols to worship that many people are completely blind to the fact it is an idol at all. have we ever noticed how the TV is typically set in the middle of the house, in the middle of the room, surrounded by chairs where many people gather to be drawn in for hours at a time? have we ever noticed how football season is often more celebrated and more anticipated than Christmas? have we ever noticed how much we think and worry about money? i wonder if we all compared our time spent watching TV, football, working, what have you...to our time spend before the Lord, how would it look? do we spend more time learning sport stats than about our God?
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or in my case, people tend to be my idols. i put so much time and energy into building those relationships, pleasing them, and learning about what they love...that i often forget that only my relationship with God will fully satisfy and bring joy. only God will remain always faithful and fully loving, despite my faults. i rely too much on what a person thinks of me. Galatians 1:10 has to be a constant reminder in my life or i will fall quickly.
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all i have to do is look at myself and those around me to see that God is not all that we worship (if even that). especially in a Christian college, there seem to be categories... there are the athletes that worship sports, their own abilities, and the score on the board. there are the intellectuals that rely on their brains to prove their worth. there are the super Christians that do any and every Christian event on campus (this was me for some time, i regret)...the ones the rely on their "strong Christian" status more than their heart status, that only God can see. then there are those that say, "screw classes and the Bible, just give me beer". this was a side of umhb that i did not know existed for awhile (oh so naive..). they may even go to church hung over from the night before, but alas, they worship partying and giving of alms to the almighty porcelain throne (toilet).
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maybe it's not even those extremes...i've gotten to a point in my life where i'm not miss involved in everything (um, because i graduated, yay) and i have avoided the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge (to the point where it became an obsession so i could argue theology at the drop of a hat, or show off my awesome bible trivia skillz). my idols became less obvious to me so i got lazy...but now it's like a slap in the face. i idolize select people, their views of me, and my worth is found in their approval or happiness in me. which we all know is never going to last...
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but whatever it may be, there is something in our lives that we WILL worship. God MADE us to worship!! we can't NOT worship something. so it can be a team, school, our body, good deeds, control over our life, sex, music, beer, kids (if you have one), spouse, boyfriend/gf, or the desire to have one...
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but all that to say....when i worship something, anything, other than God, then i am worthless. if God commanded us to worship Him alone, our worship/obsession/consuming thoughts of anything else is completely and utterly worthless. and we will become worthless ourselves.
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personally the thought of being a worthless human is a thought that makes me sick. if a friend or family told me i was worthless...ugh. so why do we not listen when God tells us? why don't we care more about what God thinks of us? why do we always try to feed our own egos, insecurities and happiness with anything other than Christ?
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"You will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD." Ezekiel 23:49
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"For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." 1 Peter 4:3-5
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it's so strange how many of us Christians seem to know the scripture so well, and yet we remain still so naive to it's truth...
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why do we make it so hard to choose Christ over ourselves and worthless things?
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"For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." Eccles. 12:14
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