Anything in your life that makes the hours pass like minutes, the weeks pass like days, that does not feed a starving soul, and does not glorify God's Kingdom, fill the hearts and hurts of our wives, husbands, and children. Yes anything that leaves us purposeless, and feeling empty, yet craving more is by no means a gift from God. Quite simply, it is called an idol.
The past year I have been considering what kind of things could be so distractive and destructive to both our families, friends, and our Christian testimonies. Something that would help us to understand the meaning of having idols in our lives as described throughout the time of the Israelites in the Old Testament. The kind of obsessive idol worship that Jesus continually referred to throughout the parables in the Gospels. What could possibly illustrate to us the way that we get sidetracked or unfocused when it comes to what God's plan for our life is? How far will we go at some point to rationalize away our selfish, sinful, and obsessive behavior when it comes to such idols in our lives? Is there a cost to such obsessive behavior or is no one really hurt when we are distracted in such a significant way?
To understand what an idol is, let us use a simple definition. Furthermore let me clarify that if you are not a Christ follower, some of this will make no sense. A Christ follower is someone who has committed their life to Jesus Christ and believes in the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. (Rom 10:9-10) Unless you have made this commitment, you will obviously not see the need to change anything about your behavior or obsessive idols. The sad part is that there may be some Christians reading this that refuse to acknowledge the harm of their own obsession themselves. None the less, I ask you to keep reading with the hope that you may walk away from this article with a new life perspective.
An idol in your life is anything that has taken on more importance than God. The symptoms of idol worship will always be a desire to spend a disproportionate amount of time with something other than your family, friends, and even daily household chores. It will be an ever-present thought on your mind which will be of first importance to you when you get home or near it. It will always make you seem that you would rather be doing this thing even when you are with your family. Usually the person who has such an idol obsession witll become irritated and angered if confronted about it by those who care about him or her.
