american [dream] idol

now to my real post. i've had this one bouncing around in my head for the past couple weeks. it's a combination response to some of the responses i've had to my previous couple posts and a lot of what i've been thinking the last couple weeks.

::emotion.
i had some response that my emotionality in the past few posts has been unduly strong. isn't emotion inherently strong? why am i wrong for having a powerful emotional response to events in my life? surely you must realize these things are a normal part of the growing and maturing process, both as a person and a Christian. Christ summarized the law as (1) love the Lord with all your heart, and (2) love your neighbor as yourself (take a look at the 10 commandments...this is pretty clear). let me summarize this as (1) be a disciple, and (2) make disciples. this is all part of #1 for me - the growing & maturing process. emotions are part of this. isn't God emotional? we're made in His image...

::desire & idolization.
i have desires. everyone does - this is part of being made in the image of God. granted, some of these desires are out of line with God's desires for our lives. David wrote, "Delight yourselves in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Ps. 37.4). Jesus put it another way - "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Mt. 6.33). so, as i wrote before, i desire a wife, the white picket fence, 2.5 kids and a dog. but a bigger problem arises when i desire these things and am not pursuing God first. that is the point where a desire becomes an idol, and "desire" becomes "deserve." God clearly says "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20.3). basically, as Randy Pope puts it, don't add to God...the point where we desire God less than we deserve other things. the only thing we deserve is death - this is clearly taught in most of Paul's letters. to bring this to a head, i so often idolize what some would call the American dream, and place this desire far ahead of God. i mean, i deserve it, right? or not... let me put the first commandment another way - don't have any hope before God. any hope we place above that of Christ is idolization. i hope i'm making myself clear - and i'm preaching to myself as much, if not more, than anyone else.

::clarification.
regarding the events and thoughts i've posted the last couple weeks - i'm more angry with myself than anyone else...for letting myself be used in that way, and for not guarding my heart.

more to come!