2017: Casting Down American Idols

Hi, new year.  It’s resolution time again.  Blah.

Here’s the thing, a couple of months ago I would’ve bragged about finally getting my crap together.  David and I have been running.  (Excuse me, WHAT?!?  Exercise?  I know.  No one is more shocked than me.)  We got our foster care certification.  Elijah became one of the finalists participating in his school’s geography bee.  (Spoiler alert: He WON!!)  Stuff was lining up.

Then we got our foster placement.  And, as you already know, all the crap I thought I had together hit the fan in a big way.  It was messy, disconcerting, painful.  It threw our family for a loop.

Now, being on the other side of that chaos, I see things a little more clearly.  (Also perhaps the full nights of sleep and anxiety meds are helping with that clarity.  Or Jesus.  Whatever.)  And I realize that my biggest struggle isn’t with worry or people pleasing or adulting in general.  It’s with idolatry.

Idolatry.  Seriously?  Just hear me out.  So, in present day we typically think of idols as they relate to Ryan Seacrest or an Indiana Jones film.  But idolatry isn’t bowing down to a large golden monkey statue.  I mean, it can be, but there’s more to it than that.  Merriam-Webster defines idolatry as an “immoderate attachment or devotion to something.”

For me, idolatry is looking for my completion or fulfillment in something other than Jesus.  Ouch.  Not that we shouldn’t find significance in a task, relationship, profession, or cause.  God created us with special gifts and talents; He gave us the desire to work, to live in community.  But when the scales tip and we derive our essential meaning from these passions instead of Christ, it becomes idolatry.

Thinking foster care will fill the void in my life is idolatry.  Defining myself solely by Elijah’s successes or failures is idolatry.  Looking to the completion of our Ethiopian adoption as the end all and be all is idolatry.  Seeking my friends’ and my husband’s opinions before the truth of Bible study and prayer can be a form of idolatry.  (P.S. All examples from my real life. #winningatsinning)  And certainly, done in the right spirit, none of these things are wrong.  Foster care and adoption are the heart of God.  He wants us to love our children and cherish wise counsel.  The problem comes when seek our identity from those pursuits first, no matter how worthy they may be.

There is a hymn that sums this up so well.  I couldn’t possibly add anything to these beautiful words, originally written by Edward Mote long ago:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

Finding your primary significance in any earthly role will leave you wanting.  Children will disappoint us, marriages and friendships can end, a once treasured occupation could become a burden, undertakings lose momentum and fail, expectations don't align with reality.  Or the exact opposite could happen.  And even when every.single.thing. seems perfect, there will be a lurking emptiness-Guaranteed.  Unless Jesus is involved.  Our identity has to be tied to His unchangeable truth.  Either our meaning is in Him or we’ll spend our lives futilely striving for a purpose He’s already provided.  And, I don’t know about you, but that is one struggle I am happy to give up.