As a supporter of the Adelaide Crows Football Club, the 2022 AFL season has been a painful one. I have got to the point of struggling to watch a game, and contemplating the club’s fortunes makes me feel as though life itself could lose all meaning! (violin music!!…)
In fact, it has been way too painful. Not because my team has happened to have performed poorly – a good percentage of the teams must do each year to make it a competition. But the fact that this has caused me the amount of pain it has, is what has been way too much! It indicates that I put more value than I should in my beloved team, and it’s performing well.
The Bible defines an idol as anything in creation that we value and trust more than God (Ro 1:21-25). These may be not only the gods of other religions (represented by various images), but secular things (e.g., wealth, career, social status), and even Christian things (e.g., our preferred style of worship, our morality, our good works, Christian ministry).
If anything in our lives, when it “crashes”, causes “our world to fall apart”, then that is our idol. Only the true God doesn’t crash! That’s why it is essential for us to value and trust Him and His grace only to give us real security in our lives.
Grace and cheers, Jonathan.