On Idols

I listened to a sermon by Matt Chandler called “American Monkeys” talking about idols- he was pointing out aspects of life  that we as American Christians tend to idolize. He told a story about visiting a Monkey Temple in India, then continued to draw comparisons between those literal idols in India to the idols we have in our culture.  This is one of my favorite messages to listen to- I think I will need it especially around home assignment time. Here is a great excerpt:

“What I’ve found about missions trips is this: you tend to romanticize the culture you’re in and feel bad about  your home culture….but here’s the reality, in all cultures everywhere, there are good, beautiful, God-besotted, rhythmic, redeemed things, and there are rebellious wicked things that in the end, the scriptures command to be set straight.” 

It has been so easy to find sinful aspects of the culture here. I have not grown up with those practices being considered normal everyday life. But I have come to learn that there are aspects of my home culture that are just as obviously sinful to outsiders to which I have been blinded. 

 I think leaving my own culture has really helped me in seeing places in my life that where I am not living like Jesus calls Christians to live. Most of the areas I am finding are the more culturally accepted sins in American culture. It’s like that whole, ‘you boil a frog in the pot with a slow heat, that way he won’t jump out, but just gradually cook unawares’ thing. For me it has taken leaving the gradually heating waters of compromising movies and media, overeating and overspending to see that these are areas in my life that I had just melded to my environment instead of following the standards set in the Bible. 

Matt Chandler gives ten questions he got from Timothy Keller to help us identify idols in our lives. Chandler talked a lot about how American Christians tend to idolize relationships with children/family. This hit me hard- a lot of the answers to the below questions had to with my family. It is biblical and godly to love my family and want their best, as long as my relationship with Jesus is still the strongest and most important relationship in my life. 

What are you most afraid of?

What motivates the things that you do?

What is one thing that can change your mood in a second?

What consumes most of your thoughts and feelings?

What brings the highest amount of frustration and anger in your life?

What would your friends say is your favorite topic of conversation?

What do you yearn for?

What is one thing that you wish God would do for you?

What are some things that you feel you can’t live with?

 What brings you solace?

I hope this challenges you as it has me.