What is your definition of idolatry? What are the danger areas in your life? 512 - 9 - 7

In its extreme, Idolatry is anything that I value more than God. However, to me a lesser form of idolatry is anything that gets in the way of keeping my mind centered on God. I tend to have an “all in” rather addictive personality. When I worked in the corporate world I was sometimes criticized as being too single-minded. If I had a job to do I got “err done” as Larry the cable Guy would say. I suspect that even when I was raising my children performing the job I was being paid for took precedence as I traveled more than occasionally on business.

When nearing job burnout I played on the fringes of the New Age. I acquired quartz crystals and other mineral specimens. While I never attributed the New Age hype to crystals, I still love them as God’s creation. So here I am years later with boxes of crystals that I am paying storage on.

After taking early retirement I morphed into a very creative phase of my life making some rather Celtic wall hangings. Given my addictive personality, I still have boxes of fur, leather, feathers and other supplies that I’m also paying storage for. Next I got into beads, making jewelry and buying and selling Native American jewelry. Fortunately the sterling silver findings and jewelry I bought years ago were good investments. As for the craft items, my friends and I are planning a yard sale next weekend and I hope to divest myself of a “ton of cabbage”; from an old Sufi legend. Having so much stuff in my life gets in the way of keeping my mind centered on God.

I probably should have mentioned my square dancing phase as well. I discovered square dancing while living in Southern California and in two years blew through club level, advance level and was dancing challenge level III. More of the addictive personality. I couldn’t be satisfied with the enjoyment that comes with club level square dancing, no I had to excel with the predictable resulting burnout. Most of my life I’ve been an extremely competitive person, code word for the sin of pride.

Perhaps it is my addictive personality that has me digging so deeply into the Word of God; if so an excellent addiction. One failing that I have to be aware of is pride. I’ll be in a Bible study and I’ll wonder why people seem so uninformed and/or not receptive to digging deeply into God’s Word. I realize that pride is rearing its ugly head again and I run the risk of making an idolatry out of studying the Word rather than internalizing it. It’s been said that the longest distance is the approximately 18 inches from the head to the heart. So I have to remind myself that while I’m studying to be a better Christian apologist, a relationship with the one who created the Word is far more important than intellectualizing.