Granger Community Church Online Online Church Blog

“American Idol (or any other)”

"When you settle for a love that's less than God's love, it's going to wreck your life."- Dr. Bob  What???  OK, I admit it.  I've been around church for a long time, I'm used to the cliches', and if asked I would say that I have Jesus #1 in my life.  However, this hit me between the eyes...

So what are these lesser loves?  The Bible uses the term "idols", a simple definition used:  Something about which we would say, "If I only had that, life would be worth living..."  Well I don't know about you, but I hear that phrase all around me and in my own head on a regular basis...

These idols are sneaky.  They creep up on you, they ease their way into our lives and feel well- intentioned, normal, as if we're doing what everyone else around us is doing...  Well, it is what virtually everyone else around us is doing- settling for lesser loves... and the human heart just keeps cranking out new idols.

Sound judgemental?  Well, I'm as guilty of it as anyone...  What does it look like in my life?  Dr. Bob asked a second question: When you give your creative juices to your idol, are you only diminishing the ability to seek God in our lives?

• In my life, I drift to giving all my creative juices to my job, to email, to making a profit for a business, to getting the next thing done... Is this bad?  When it becomes my first love it can wreck my life... Fast forward that out... 40 hour work weeks moving to 50, 55, 60 hour work weeks... Rewards that can make life about money that will only lead to thinking I need more money...  Hard work is a good thing if in it's right place...
• Other idols in people's lives?  Relationships, your husband, your wife, your hobby, an addiction, the Chicago Cubs, working out, a TV show(s), our kids, working for a raise.....  Many of these are good things but can wreck your life if out of order....
• "Trying to be good so we can get God's love in of itself is an idol....it's the opposite of Christianity... Christianity is about Grace..." - Dr. Bob
• We get less and less satisfaction from our idols and need more and more of them to try to be satisfied
• Those who make idols become like the idols... we can have ears but do not hear... our friends are trying to tell us about a blind spot we have in our lives but we don't listen
• No woman and no man is up to handle the standard of an idol

Our idols become like an old comfortable chair...the easy chair... it's in our nature.  Instead, we have an option of choosing the "tough choice chair"- the one that puts idols in the proper place, the one that gives people second chances and seldom feels comfortable.  Jesus is the only Source of love worth living for...

What is God's Response to Idols?   "When lesser gods attract, God withdraws, honoring our fatal flaw to ignore Him."

This is the choice of our Faith.  We have an option to choose what's normal and in our nature or the option to seek Christ and put Him number one in our lives.  Easy vs. Hard.  Do as I please or do what God is asking of me.

Which will we choose?  What has first place in your life?

See Dr. Bob's message here.

To go deeper: 

• Counterfeit Gods- by Tim Keller  Recommended book