Pay Attention to Your Idols, Because They'll Lead You Straight to God...

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There's hidden information in your idols. Information about the way you were made.

What information, you ask?

The answer lies in their uncanny ability to capture your heart.

Idols have quickly become "public enemy #1" in church culture. If we like a certain TV show... we try to make sure it isn't an idol. If we're surfing Facebook a lot... we have to make sure it doesn't become an idol. If we care too much about a story or a team or a game... we worry that it's becoming an idol.

How does an idol control us so easily?

There's got to be a special something that gives it the special, "heart-capturing" power. But what is it? Why does a season of Friday Night Lights on Netflix capture my heart instead of English class? Why doesn't English class capture my heart?

In fact, why was I always thinking about Friday Night Lights while I was in English class?

What's the X factor that makes you want your idols?

Don't you want to know?

My Specific Idol

I'm going to be completely honest -- I was obsessed with video games when I was younger. Story games, to be exact -- the kind of games that call you into an adventure intertwined with a love story, and invite you in to be a part of it yourself.

Have you ever been pulled into a story? I'm sure you have. But have you ever been so pulled in that you wanted more than anything to just be a part of that story instead of your own?

Because that's how I felt when I was younger. Video games, movies, books... anything with an immersive world, I was hooked.

I was looking for something.

Those were my idols. I had a long time where I would ban myself from the stories, because I could tell I loved them more than God. They scared me. They were powerful, and I just couldn't figure out how they had so much power over me.

I longed to live in other stories. I hated my own story. I idolized other stories by escaping into them. And as hard as I tried, I couldn't get the idols to go away. I needed them.

But one day... it finally clicked.

The Reason Idols Are So Tempting

After some enlightening conversations with friends, I realized something: If I was made for God, and these things are so attractive to me -- why do I like THEM instead of God? And the answer, like a typhoon, came rushing in:

Because they look like something about God that I'm made to love.

They look like God. 

Think about it. What do you love about your idol? Dig deep. Think about the deep need it fills. If you're anything like me, your idol is filling a place that gives you a sense of value, beauty, or love.

Sound familiar?

The stories that I long to be a part of all share similar qualities:

• They create a grand new world for me to explore
• They give me a way to partake in a struggle bigger than me
• They offer a heroic purpose, a love interest, and a worthy adversary
• They promise a life of meaning

 God offers me every single one of these things.

Treat Your Idols Like a Scientist

If you were a researcher studying the ebola virus, how would you go about finding a cure? You would study it. What does it look like? When does it activate? How does it attack the body? When scientists begin to learn these things, they begin to develop a way to fight it.

Treat your idols the same way. Study them. Figure out what deep thing you're trying to get from them. Find out when they flare up and what they make you want. And then, figure out how God was supposed to be giving you that same thing. It's not far off, I can assure you. If it was, your idol wouldn't be an idol.

An idol is only an idol because it closely resembles a quality of God you were made for.

Don't settle for the idol version of your happiness. It actually kills you, you know. Instead, fight to understand how that idol reveals your unique original design, your unique favorite parts about God, and how you were created to connect with Him.

Here's how I'm uniquely designed: I LOVE adventure. And that's why my idols are often epic stories -- because I begin to doubt that God could ever give me a better story than the one I'm idolizing. That's kind of how it works.

I have a friend who LOVES love. She idolizes relationships with guys, because she doubts God could ever fill her deep spiritual needs better than a guy could.

Idols feed on the lie that God can't fill that part of us.

Study your God-substitutes. What do they mean about the unique cocktail of things you're craving from God? Because your idols are a CLUE to the parts of God you're searching for. Those are probably the parts of God that He most wants you to see.

You can see God in everything you love. And at its very core, everything you love is everything you were made for.

What are your idols pointing to, deep down?



Psalm 37:4 - "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

John 10:10 - "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."