Idols of Our Heart

In order to be happy I do not need:

...to spend Christmas with my family
...to be able to see my family at all
...a week of vacation
...a finished basement
...kids with outfits that actually go together or are even clean
...dishes to be done before I go to bed
...to get rid of my ants
...to go to bed by a certain time
...to be out of debt
...happy kids or a happy husband
...to dress in style
...8 hours of sleep
...a closet with clothes that fit
...a clean kitchen floor or any floor for that matter
...to feel educated or even using my education
...well behaved kids in church or in the store
...all my bills paid
...my kids in bed by nine
...a house that matches up to the neighbors
...my son potty trained
...to sleep through the night
...to be able to buy what I think I need
...to get rid of the janitor job
...no weeds and lots of trees
...to have obedient kids
...to live with no money restraints
...to have a car that is not breaking
...to accomplish anything "worthwhile" today
...to have a day off
...a variety of food for the table
...to know what will happen tomorrow or next week
...to have people like me
...to have people appreciate what I do
So God take away these Idols that we have set up and give us contentment and thankfulness for all that we do have and for who you are. Help me to see the big picture of what you want for me and how I can fulfill that goal using the time you have given me today.

A Gallon of White Paint

Recently, my four-year-old son accidentally spilled a full gallon of white paint down the carpeted stairs in our house. As I happened upon this mess, I thought of this quote from Dave Harvey's book When Sinners Say I Do . My response wasn't perfect but it was tempered by the realization that the idols in my heart were being exposed (my personal comfort, my desire for a perfect house, my plan to do something "profitable" with my day).

Not long ago, my son started the lawnmower with the oil cap loose. Once the engine heated up, the poor kid struck oil. And it was a geyser! Since I don't change the oil often (read: never), a slimy black sludge erupted from the engine, covering the lawnmower, my son, and everything within a six-foot radius. (It's because of stuff like this that I don't cut grass.)

This might be a helpful illustration for understanding the operation of remaining sin. Original sin filled the "engine" of our hearts with the "oil" of depravity--dark, greasy, and staining everything it touches. Circumstances come along and heat the engine. When the engine is hot--when events in our lives test our hearts by stirring anger, lust, greed, etc.--whatever is in the engine spews out. The heat (the circumstances did not fill the engine with oil, it simply revealed what was in the engine.

Experienced any heat lately?...

Have you ever considered why there are no accounts of Jesus slamming a door in angry frustration or inflicting the "silent treatment" on someone who hurt him? Why didn't Jesus get irritated or bitter or hostile? The simple but astounding answer is that when his engine was heated by circumstances, what was in his heart came out: love, mercy, compassion, kindness, Christ didn't respond sinfully to the circumstances in his life--even an undeserved, humiliating, torturous death--because the engine of his heart was pure. What was in his heart spilled over. It was love!