Google Homepage & Idols of the Heart

(HT- David Powlison's "Idols of the Heart and 'Vanity Fair'")

In the Bible, God's people are often rebuked & even mocked for practicing idolatry. "They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, 'You are our gods'" (Isaiah 42:17; see also Psalm 115:4-9). What is ridiculous is that man would bow down to a material object which he created and give it worth, glory, and exaltation as God!

It may sound foreign in both time and culture, but the rebuke of idolatry is not simply aimed toward the physical bowing of the knee to a scuplted idol. Ezekiel 14:1-8 indicates that the problem of idolatry is in the heart of man. In this passage, Israel's problem was not simply a physical action; rather, the 'idol' controlled the desires, emotions, and volitions of their heart (Ez. 14:3- "they have taken idols into their hearts..."). Likewise, you and I in 21st century America (or wherever you may be reading this from), take 'idols into our hearts.' Oh, these idols are never false gods of other organized religions- we are far too sneaky for that sort of thing! Rather, our idols- our functional gods- are those priorities which govern the use of our recourses- time, energy, money.

Ken Sande (www.peacemaker.net) defines an idol this way- "An idol, as we have seen, is any desire that has grown into a consuming demand that rules our heart; it is something we think we must have to be happy, fulfilled, or secure. To put it another way, it is something we love, fear, or trust." If we love, fear, trust, demand, need something/someone to the point that it governs your time OR you need it to be happy, you and I have created an idol. Do you need to be respected? Do you need to be praised? Do you need to be in shape, to have comfort, to be served, to play video games, to follow sports, to ____________ (fill in the blank)? Congratulations, you and I are in the same boat of idol worshippers!

One professor once told me, "It is easy for me to see what you worship. All I need to do is follow you around for a week, and look at your bank statements!" The way we spend our time & money is telling to what our hearts truly value.

Now, as I've thought about this recently, I have begun to analyze my own life (2 Cor. 13:5). When I open a new page my internet browser (Google Chrome- very good), Google Homepage gives me links to all my most visited pages. Seeing as I spend alot of time at a computer and on the internet, this should be a great indicator of what I value, right? Below is the Top 9, with categories in parentheses-

- Free Fantasy Baseball on ESPN (SPORTS- 2nd place in my league though!)

- Welcome to Facebook (Social)

- Mint.com (Financial)

- Gmail (Social/Spiritual)

- ESPN Homepage (Spiritu...I mean SPORTS)

- ESV Bible Online (Spiritual)

- Embrace the Tension (my blog, spiritual)

- Arrowhead Credit Union (Financial)

- MLB Baseball Scoreboard (SPORTS)

One can see the breakdown- 3 SPORTS; 2 Financial; 2 Social; 2 Spiritual. Uh Oh. Based on the above, with the resource of the internet, I seem to give great value (aka 'worship') to sports, social life, and my money. Sure, Jesus is thrown in there, but apparently he is not running the show. (I can also predict that the baseball links will probably change to football in a few weeks, but that doesn't solve the problem now does it?) It seems, sadly, that Jesus is important to me, but is he my God? Meaning- does he dictate what I do and how I spend my time, or do other interests, priorities, hobbies, and values?

My point is this- don't kid yourself. God is all, and he must be worshipped above all else. We've all got some repenting to do, and google homepage provides some great analysis to help you do it!