Idolatry, A Practiced Art

A lot of my life of late has been spent dealing with a relative "spiritual depression" that I had been experiencing for a while. To a certain extent, I am still dealing with it, but I can see the proverbial light at the proverbial end of the proverbial tunnel, to be proverbial. Recent events, dealings, readings and other sundry circumstances have assisted me in this emergence from the darkness.

After a long period of surmising, contemplating and failing, I realized that a great deal of my depression and lack of sentiment for the Lord was my consistent and repeated idolatry. I know that we've heard many a time that "Idols are not just those statues they worshiped back in the day in Canaan, you know!" but I do not think that we have truly comprehended this, or attempted to examine are lives with this in mine. At least, I had not for a long period of time.

Well, I am sad to admit that my heart is, as John Calvin stated, “a factory of idols…everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, is an expert in inventing idols.” Well in my heart's factory, our specialty idol to is godly young women.

That's right, I said godly. I have the unfortunate ability to turn nearly every sister in Christ into a dating option. A select few have gone beyond this, to the point where I looked to them for my satisfaction instead of God.

It took me a while to realize that this idolatry has pretty much characterized the past year of my life. I have repeatedly pursued several different females, or at least "had feelings" for them, which was in fact my form of worship of them. My campus minster gave a great message on idolatry based out of Hosea, I'd encourage you to check it out, it basically expounds on what I'm trying to get across here.

Well, it has been a difficult process to tear down these idols. It has been a slow process, a tiring one, a frustrating one, for sure. Just about every time I think I've torn down one of these females as an idol, my heart begins to entertain the thought and affections of another.

Sometimes I want to literally slap myself in the face when my thoughts incline to a new girl, and I wish I could just blot out the entirety of the female gender as options for relationships. I have really had to seek God in this to figure out how to fix this aspect of my walk.

To conclude, I have had some recent epiphanies and discoveries in this area, and I will be sharing them in this venue, instead of the previously preferable Facebook. I'd love to hear feedback on them.