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My neighbor has a blog (that I shant link, since I believe it is not a public blog…) and she was sharing some stuff about her (successful) endeavor to quit smoking. One line caught my eye. She likened her smoking to idolatry. Now, I don’t think that smoking by itself is a sin, or idolatrous. My neighbor says it is for her, and so, she is right. It’s something that gets in between her and God.
When she said that, I thought, “You know, that’s a cool way of thinking about idolatry.” God tells us to have no other gods before him. And “ta not to” worship idols. That is mostly meaningless to us today, because no one (not many?) actually build big ugly stone “idols” and offer sacrifices or bow and/or pray to them. Do they? So, it’s hard to connect with what God is saying there. But if you think of God’s ultimate goal for us is to reconcile us to him, in full relationship with him… he doesn’t want anything getting in the way of that full connection with him. (For our sake, not his.)
I remember hearing that nowadays an idol can be pretty much anything… a relationship, a favorite hobby, even just drinking Coke. And I think probably Sunday school teachers can take that a bit too far. But what my neighbor said helped me see that idea from a slightly different perspective. The badness is not that God is not getting all of us, and we’re somehow not measuring up… the badness is that whatever is distracting us from the fullness of the relationship he intends us to be in with him is limiting the Life we’re supposed to be living. That can be smoking, drinking, gossiping, even just the internet and checking e-mail? 🙂
You’ve heard it said that God wants all of us, and I believe that’s true… but I am not sure that I have completely understood that over the years. I think I understand that God’s motivation is not to be the cosmic Rule Enforcer, but rather, the friend and Father who only wants the best for us. I know I want that for my kids, and I am so flawed in my fatherhood it’s ridiculous. So if I can even know that love that wants my kids to have the fullest life possible… flawed as I am… how much greater is that desire in our perfect Father?
Anyhoo… thanks neighbor for some good thoughts on why God wants to get the stuff out of our life that gets between us and him. And congrats on six months. 🙂