What Do You Idolize?

What do we idolize? Pastor Dave brought this up at church last night and it gave me something to think about… not because I idolize anything (that I can think of), but because I notice how people around me idolize things. The list includes drugs, alcohol, sports stars, authors. Almost anything you can imagine can be idolized.

Sometimes we idolize something without even realizing it. You might say, “Kiel, but this is my passion, isn’t that okay?” It all depends on your heart. Our first call is to love and serve the Lord our God.

Are you a Colts fan or Bears fan? Do you associate with a particular political party? Do you have a really nice car?

If I were to ask someone what your favorite thing is, would they say God? Or would they say, “he loves the Chicago Bears.”

I remember Dave telling me a story a while back about when he first became a pastor. He was asked to perform a funeral for someone who wasn’t a believer and Dave asked them, “what can you tell me about him?” To which the family responded, “he loved cars.”

Is that how we want to be remembered? Loving cars? I’m not saying that cars aren’t a many splendid thing, they are. But I have had the chance to go to the memorial service of two great guys in the past month. One of the guys I didn’t really know, the other one I knew fairly well.

The great thing about both of them is that it was quite clear that their focus was on God. Especially Chuck. Walking around the auditorium at Chuck’s memorial service, I could look at all the pictures, all the memorabilia of the things he enjoyed, but nobody really focused on that. We all knew that Chuck was a man of many interests, but it didn’t define him. What defined him was how he sought out God and showed His love to all of his friends.

So I want to encourage you today to seek out the idols that are in your “closet.” Is there something that takes away your focus from God? This time leading up to Easter is a great time to give something up… have you heard of Lent? Ha ha.

So yeah, that’s my deep thought for Sunday! I hope all of you are having a restful day before we start into another week.