1) You can idolize other things including family relationships over Jesus during Christmas.
2) I am only "unmateralistic" by the richer people's standards. Yet I was all upset lately that I have never gotten the opportunity to paint my room and people from richer societies symphaize as if I am saying i have a deadly disease. "that's awful!" "that must be so hard". Meanwhile, some people from other cultures and/or backgrounds look at me and say "really? you're complaining about that?". I think it's more of an idol than i'm even aware of...
I need to start off by telling you a seemingly unrelated story. A while back I was dating this guy. And he was a good guy..I mean in itself there was nothing wrong with our relationship. the problem was I idolized him. At the time I had NO idea that i was doing this. For instance, I felt a calling from God into missionary work before we got into a relationship. As we got more serious, I started to justify why missionary work was not right for me (because this guy did not feel called into missionary work). I didn't say "I don't want to be a missionary because i want to have this guy in my life instead of listening to you God". That would be absurd to say! Instead I would say "God...I think I misheard what you were trying to say. I can have a ton of impact on people locally. I mean surely you're not truly calling me to missionary work".
When did i start to realize that he was an idol I had? Well, we broke up and I knew that it was a permanent split up. All of a sudden....I had NO CLUE what my purpose would be! I felt empty! I couldn't sleep or eat and I almost missed out on going on a short term missionary trip because my mental health was affecting me physically. The funny thing is, even amongst this withdrawal, I still had NO IDEA that this was a result of idolization. "It's normal", I would tell myself, "it's in movies and love stories and it's how i'm supposed to feel". It was not until a while later (the mission's trip really helped...getting away from it all) when I had distanced myself from the idol for considerable time, that I realized...yeah it was a problem. I mean he was a perfectly okay guy..the problem was not who I chose to date (that made it so unpleasing before God), but rather that I placed him above God.
See, I don't think I'm removed enough from the materialism of culture to know whether or not I have an idol. I don't feel comfortable speaking about my own idolization of stuff or people around Christmas time. I think I do have idols, but I probably don't even know the extent of it. I mean, okay, I've gone to one short term mission's trip (so far). And it changed my life and my perspective. But.....I mean....it was still two weeks long (and that was two years ago). So all though it might have helped, I feel that it was probably only the tip of the iceberg.
So what am I trying to say here?
1) that we do have to seriously look at our own hearts...we should not just rule out the possibility of an idol because we often try to justify our idols.
2) we often have to distance ourselves from our idols before we really start to grasp our own actions.
How does this affect us? Well of course, you know I would recommend carefully considering a short term mission's trip (because for everyone who says they are not cost effective, they still provide a chance for you to get a new perspective, even if you are not called to full time missionary work...and if 3,000 gets you a new radical perspective or helps you even begin to diminish an idol it is worth every penny) or helping people who don't have materialistic things (to help us get a new perspective on materialism) within our own culture. However, beyond that I think we need to be prayerfully listening to God and guarding against excuses. I have a couple of friends who i will occasionally bounce stuff off of "I feel God is calling me to do ________" and explain the sensation and how i derived to this conclusion. They a) make sure that it lines up with biblical principals b) help me determine my motives of my heart which confirms or rejects whether it's God (they are my close friends and will prayerfully ask for direction in this area) and c) if i start making excuses when we KNOW it is God, they will challenge me.
This has always been a powerful video to help me think about Christmas time and what it should be about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IN0W3gjnNE
I am not saying that spending money is wrong. But that primarily, we should be focused on Jesus being born! We should be focused on what he wants on this birthday celebration which is the giving of our hearts and the giving of money towards the poor and the hurting. Can we celebrate with material things for ourselves and loved ones and send out christmas lists? of course! but they should never be MORE important than God! especially not on his birthday.
if your like me, you're going to have a hard time even recognizing your idols when your up close to them. I am like that with so many idols in my life-- i don't realize they're an idol until I have too/end up going without it. When people challenge me to spend a month off of the computer..I struggle with it a lot more than I should...that is just ONE of the many examples i have. so I would challenge you to try to read the Bible more, focus on Jesus more (is it just me or do i find it easier to have idols around Christmas?) and try to enjoy the things that really matter to him.
one thing i tried when i was younger, was to look at the bible and evaluate what it said was important around christmas time...consumerism jumped out as something that Jesus didn't really find all that much value in. So one Christmas I gave a Christmas list full of things for other people....I purposely distanced myself JUST A LITTLE from the potential idol. I know I still do not see it clearly, but I did realize just how attached I was to STUFF! I would also challenge you to start thinking of potential idols....especially idols that you can get rid of (if you idolize family it is harder to deal with because you have to still keep your family relationships...certainly that would be preferred...you just have to figure out how to put God first). but with idols like stuff or approval or money or fame, a gadget or something...I would encourage you to try and distance yourself slightly from one of those that you think MIGHT be a potential idol in your life. You may be surprised what the distance allows you to see.
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