A friend and I sat over lunch recently and talked about idols. It was interesting. We started talking about statues and icons, but then we quickly moved into a discussion of things much more relevant to our own hearts - those idols we have that we don't like to think about.
In the Old Testament (Genesis 31:25ff) there is the story of Rachel (wife of Jacob) who actually hid her idols under her skirts and was willing to lie to protect these hidden idols. My friend and I concluded that we play games with "idols" too and that just about anything or anyone can become so important that they slip out of the right place in our hearts into a distorted place and become an idol.
We talked about how we need each other to help us be accountable. We talked about how much we need God's constant and continued restoration of our hearts to make us aware when our hearts are getting off track.
A few years ago I taught a Bible study on Ecclesiastes. That's the question the author ("Teacher" who may have been King Solomon) ponders all through his writings. What are the things that we chase after that we think will be the final thing that will finally make us happy? It's like chasing a bubble. Just as we reach to grasp it, it bursts and we see what we were chasing so hard wasn't really what we thought.
The message of Ecclesiastes (as is that of all of Scripture) is that only when we find our center, our reason to be in God Himself will we find that life really, really matters. And the only way that's going to happen is for God to do an extreme make-over of our hearts - restoration!
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