California Idols

No…I’m not Simon and we’re not singing about anything on the ground.

“Californian Idols” is the name of a weekly series that will show up on this blog.  Every Monday, we will be focusing on a different cultural idol:  Success, Money (a.k.a. “cheddar”), Sensuality, and More.  The goal of these blog posts is to think as a community about what idols our culture is holding out to us and saying: “Worship This!”

Every culture has certain idols that it worships.  Although one culture may look better or cleaner than another, they all hold onto idols that they believe will grant them life and joy.  There is no culture that is “for God” or “God neutral”.  Instead, every culture has it’s own set of idols that it worships…and it calls to you and I and says, “Worship these idols, they’re better than God!”  If we are going to fight this temptation, we must identify the idols and shout back to our culture, “I worship God, He’s better than anything you offer!”

In case you don’t know what we’re talking about when we say, “idol”, let me define it for you.  Tim Keller puts it well when he says,

What is an idol?  It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your hearts, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.’

So there you have it…check back every Monday to see the latest installment…and take part in the discussion by leaving comments in the “comment section” and giving your thoughts!

First question…

What are the “Californian Idols” that you see around you and that cry out to us saying, “Worship me!”???