Where Do You Kneel?

How often have we been distracted from seeing God’s involvement in our history, forgetting the divine that exists in the ordinary, turning away from the sacred that is present in the simple and pursue modern idols of ideals that would certainly alleviate our struggles and fight our battles for us? These modern idols are seductive, for they are ideals that, in and of themselves are not innately evil, but when pursued or worshiped in a manner that replaces worship of God, they are transformed into modern idols because we exchange our faith and trust in God for a hope and trust in something else.

In the late 6th Century Pope Gregory the Great was the first to articulate what is commonly known as the seven deadly sins: Pride, Envy, Anger, Greed, Sadness (which later became sloth or laziness), Gluttony, and Lust. History has illustrated how the church has both abused these principles and utilized them for good through the disciplines of the Christian faith.

But in our world today, with all of our perceived advances in technology, education, research, communication and medicine, the great struggle for people is to address these four modern idols. Novelty - Structure - Destination & Answers Each of these concepts, in and of themselves is not destructive and actually each one possess critical component vital to healthy living; however whenever any one of these concepts becomes the sole goal and aim of the Christian life then the concept actually becomes the idol. The idolatry is believing that Novelty (something new), Structure (the right organizational format), Destination (getting to the right place in your job or life), or Answers (having the correct information will, in essence, “fight your battles for you.” This kind of idolatry is the underlying motivation expressed by the proverbial phrase, “The grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence)”.