Idolotry???

I would like to submit a seemingly outrageous claim. I submit that, of all people, perhaps Christians are the most prone to commit idolatry. I'm not talking about the idolatry that comes in the form of wealth, materials, addictions, or anything like that. I'm talking about an idolatry that comes in the form of one's purpose or fulfillment.

Below are two scenarios demonstrating the idolatry that I continually struggle with.

1) It's my day off. After drifting in and out of lovely sleep for a couple of relaxing hours, I reach back to my headboard and grab my Bible. I read a couple of chapters and am strengthened by the Word of God. I get out of bed and head to the shower. The shower (FYI) is a great place to pray, so I pray and dedicate my day to God. Over the course of the remainder of the day, I encounter temptations and small trials which I prayerfully overcome. At the end of the day I am happy. I feel a sense of fulfillment. My day, though not perfect, was a day of obedience to God. I'm happy today because, all in all, I lived in a godly manner.

2) I wake up at 7:30 on a work day and head to the shower. As per normal, I pray in the shower and surrender my day to God. On the way to work someone pulls out and passes me, only to slow down as soon as the passing lane ends. That person drives slow the rest of the way into town. Chances are, my attitude toward that person was less than godly. Throughout the workday, lots of things go wrong. As things go wrong, my attitude turns lousy and I occasionally curse under my breath. So much for surrendering my day to God. I'm in a bad mood when I get home because it has been a stressful day. As evening draws to a close, I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed because of my unchristian behavior. I'm upset because I didn't behave in a godly manner.

As a Christian, I believe that true joy comes from Christ and Christ alone. However, when I reflect on these scenarios, it becomes clear that I often seek to attain joy from my own performance. When I seek joy anywhere else apart from Christ, that is idolatry.

It is vitally important that I receive receive my joy and satisfaction from beholding, enjoying, and worshipping Christ. The only goodness that I am to delight in is the goodness of Christ. Then I can realize that any goodness shining through me is merely an overflow of the perfect goodness of Christ Who, by His Spirit, dwells within those who embrace Him.

I'm Back

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written in this blog. A lot has happened in my life since my last post. Towards the end of 2012, I began questioning my faith. I wasn't seeking to rebel against God; I wasn't wanting to leave God behind. I was seeking to strengthen both my faith and my Christian apologetic. But as I continued down the path of questioning, I began to encounter things that I perceived as troublesome, even fatal, to my faith.

By spring of 2013 I had completely lost my faith. I considered myself an agnostic, and was essentially atheistic in my ideology and worldview. So I embraced the secular life as best I could. It's not a super exciting story. Basically, I lived as an unbeliever for a couple of years. There were a couple times during those years that I really did try to believe again. I wasn't originally looking to become an unbeliever and, in truth, there were times that I really missed my relationship with Christ. But I was convinced that God didn't exist.

In March of 2015, things changed. I began to realize that I had been creating my own criteria for what evidence God needed to provide in order to prove His existence. Up until this point, I had been putting my own conditions on the existence of God and the truth of the Bible. And so, after much wrestling and seeking, I again was able to believe that faith in Christ is reasonable and substantial.

There are some specific issues that I had to work through in order to find my way back; I hope to address those and flesh them out a bit in future posts. For now I just wanted to get back up to date on my blog and give an update of where I'm at.