November 17, 2011
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Idols and iPods
By Ryan Duncan, TheFish.com
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment. – Matthew 22:37-38
Recently, my pastor encouraged our small group to pray and ask God to “break us” so that we would become fully reliant on him. Now, I don’t know about you, but that statement gave me pause. Anyone who has read the book of Job knows that inviting God to “break you” isn’t something you do lightly. Eventually, I decided it was worth the risk, and prayed that God would make me more reliant on him. At first nothing happened, and then my iPod broke.
I was running on a treadmill when it slipped through my fingers and hit the conveyer belt, which shot it straight into a brick wall. Immediately, my world stopped. I quit my workout and started hunting for a new one. My entire Sunday was spent driving from store to store looking for a replacement, and when I discovered my particular model was no longer available, I paid around $150 dollars to get an upgrade. I then used the rest of my night getting it synchronized, creating new playlists, and making sure everything was in good condition.
Looking back, I don’t think I’ve ever shown the same amount of devotion to my Christian faith as I did to that iPod. It was a sobering realization. I had asked God to break me, but instead he broke the thing I was actually devoted to. We like to think idols are a thing of the past, and that the modern age is more rational than the ancient world but the truth is, they’re still around. They can be big things like money, a car or a job, or they can be smaller like an iPod, a computer or a smartphone.
As Christians, our faith should rest in Christ and him alone. This can be pretty difficult, especially when living in a country like America, where comfort and security are advertised on every television. Machines will always break though, money will come and go, even people can end up disappointing you, but through all things, God remains. So take a moment and ask yourself, “Are there any idols in my life?”
Intersecting Faith and Life
Take some time and consider whether you need to rely on God more.
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