Kicking down our Idols

So I've been recently convicted about my over-eating.  I'd given an iota of thought to it and tried a diet once or twice (who am I kidding, MANY times), but have never stuck with it.  The kicker now is that there are 84 other peeps (all youth workers) on this journey with  me, because, for whatever reason, a lot of us who work with students are fat (to which Josh Griffin defines the why as: "The scientific answer is that you eat too many Doritos Tacos at Taco Bell and wash it down with gargantuan handfuls of Cinnamon Twists and Mt. Dew. Actually this is just a guess, but probably not that far off. ").

As I started, this was solely about winning some cash, a free trip to SYMC, and other cool stuff.  But, that morphed with some help from the team at The Resurgence and a post from a while back.  They were discussing the fact that many of us (meaning Americans) have made food our God while paying lip service to Jesus Christ.  Instead of looking to Him for our comfort, sustenance, and support we find it in food (which means those late night ice cream indulgences are just as bad as the indulgences that Luther went postal about).  I'd never seen it that way, it was merely a side-effect of my wrestling/football earlier days.  I ate like this because I always had... despite the fact that I was no longer burning off a bajillion calories a day working out and prepping for a game for the past 9 years!

That control level is something that nothing else has in my life and beyond that is something that should only belong to God!  I've taken something and exchanged it for its Creator.  Not good!  But especially not good is the fact that I am leading students towards a life with Jesus Christ that I have not been fully modeling.  My lack of self-control, good judgement, and discipline gives them the wrong picture of someone who is in Christ.  Paul said the fruits of the Spirit are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control" but many of those are sadly lacking, which brings me to the point of this whole post: if we are unwilling to give total control of our lives to Christ, what business do we have telling people other than ourselves to do so?  As a youth pastor, that's a hard pill to swallow, but something I needed to think through and act on.

So, I've embarked on a long journey, not simply a 90 day challenge to win cash, cool stuff, and a free trip but a journey towards being the me God  made me to be.  The exciting thing about it all?  As Rend Collective sings, "countless second chances we've been given at the cross," which for me rings true today as God takes this broken mess of me and crafts beauty from my mistakes.  Thank God for second chances and I pray that if you need to take this journey too, you hop on it kicking down your idols in exchange for the Creator of heaven and earth....

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