Idol Minded

 You have to find your contentment in Jesus, not in the blessing – Joby Martin

Crushes are pointless correct?  I mean how many times have you liked someone from a distance only to meet him or her and find that you have absolutely zero chemistry.  That if it was between spending thirty minutes trapped in an elevator with this person or fighting off a lion with your bare hands – you’d probably pick fighting the lion to having to spend another painstakingly awkward second with that guy or gal you were crooning over.  I only mention this because as I type this post, I am staring into the eyes of a current crush.  I have his photo pulled up right beside my doc.  He is giving one of those cocky come hither stares that lets the world know that he knows he’s got it.  Unfortunately, these are the guys that tend to land on my radar.  Christian or not, they leave a lot to be desired in the companion department.  They are not good to themselves and they certainly aren’t good to or for anyone else.

 So why are you staring at him you ask?  Well, the topic of idols came up in a recent small group conversation.  While I have not found a church home here in Jacksonville, I am in a ladies small group for the mean time.  The discussion centered on the things in our lives that can become idols to us and replace the only idol we should ever have – Jesus Christ.  You see an idol is anything that we are waiting on to complete us.  Anything that we can put in the sentence that goes something like this: “If I can only have/get/attain __________, then I’ll be happy/set/satisfied.  The danger with thinking like this is that there is always going to be something else we want.  If we are not careful, a new idol always crops up in our lives and wreaks havoc by stealing the joy from what is and placing the focus on what could be soon thereby keeping us in an unhappy loop that is forever stuck on repeat. 

I have a short quiet time each morning where I read a chapter of scripture and pray.  In one of my recent morning prayers I popped out these words “… and apparently the idea of a relationship has become an idol to me and I am very sorry for that…”  As soon as the words came out of my mouth I felt a jolt within me and I started to cry.  I didn’t know a relationship had become an idol in my life until I unknowingly spoke the words in prayer.  It is true that I have been struggling since leaving my friends in Los Angeles.  I am very lonely here in Jacksonville and I guess my mind has been on a relationship a lot more lately.  I am also turning the big 35 this year so I am officially hitting the status of Old  Maid/Spinster for Life.  I guess that’s what has been really eating away at my soul.   My life has not turned out the way I wanted it to and I have no one to blame but myself.  It is just what happens when you live for a bottle for 15 years.  And there’s that sentence again “If I can just find my partner everything will be better… I will feel like I have someone or something to belong to”  Ugh, I really need to shake this need for a significant other.  I can want one all I want, but needing one is a problem and I believe that I have crossed over the unhealthy threshold from wanting a partner in life to needing one.   I mean how can two days of relaxation turn me into boohoo city?  Why do I freak out the second I find myself alone with nothing to do?  Why does going to church alone make me want to kick God in the face?  Yes, we are creatures designed for community, but community comes in many forms. 

Truth be told, we all have that something special that is missing from our lives and we allow it to be the reason we are unhappy, we allow it to steal our joy. … “If I can just buy a nice house  I will be happy,”, “If can just afford nice vacations each year I will be happy” or “If I can just get that promotion”, “If I can just work my way into that crowd” , “ If I can just get pregnant”, If I can just… etc, etc, etc to infinity.  These sentences are not true.  We like to think they are true, but whatever we are hoping for whether it is a partner, a career, a house, a friend or even that cute pair of wedges in the store window– all of these things bring new challenges and I am old enough to know that nothing is ever how we imagined it.  I am beginning to realize the old adage is true – if we are not happy with our current circumstances, we will never be happy. Period.    

One of the biggest problems with putting our happiness in the future is the simple fact that we never get to enjoy the present and if we don’t enjoy the present – Well then what’s the point?  The present is all we have.  If we do get to the future we have imagined, we will most likely realize it wasn’t exactly what we thought it would be.  It might still be great, but it will not match the fantasy we have built in our heads and so we will begin hoping for something else and the unhappy cycle will keep on repeating until we reach the end of our lives and look back and wonder why we couldn’t enjoy every second we had.  We will wonder why we never learned to enjoy our present for what it is – our present.  Our gift.  We get another day to create something beautiful with God.

There’s also a reason Jesus Christ should be the only occupant of our mantle.  He is the only person that will never fail us, never leave us and always sustain us.  If we are looking for satisfaction outside of Him, we’ll never find it.  It doesn’t exist apart from Him.  Making Him our focus, living a life pleasing to Him, being an example of His love to others and leading others to Him – that is where real happiness exists.  You just have to clear your mantle and make Jesus your focal point.  This is how you learn to be content, like Paul, no matter what your current circumstance might be.

So what does all this mean?  Well for me, it means I need to make Jesus and the vision He has given me for ministry my focal point and I need to leave the man out of the picture.  Whether God has someone in mind for me is irrelevant because that man does not deserve the pressure of being my only source of happiness and the same can be said for any friends that enter my life.  Only one person can take that kind of pressure and only one person ever should – Jesus Christ.
 
I have been praying the words of an older song from Hillsong  titled “I Surrender”.  I just found myself singing this song non-stop and realized there must be a reason this song is staying on my heart.  Reality is this: God needed take over because I was unraveling.  I was lonely, I was upset and I was becoming more impatient every day. I needed God to step in and give me direction.  And so I decided to stop asking God for anything and instead I just began praying the words of the song – Lord, Have Your way in me!  Have Your way in my every minute of my every day, Have your way in my thoughts, my words, my actions, my interactions.  Help me to know how to honor you at work and in my daily life.  Lord, Have Your way in me! 

Funny thing is the moment I made Jesus my focal point by inviting Him to have His way in me, a lot of the character changes I’ve been writing about over the past year just sorta started happening all on their own….