Dirty Laundry, Spit, & Fallen Idols...

“Oooooh! Oh no, it' going to fall!”

We excitedly exclaimed as my daring young daughter stealthily removed the wooden game block from the tottering tower and placed it at the top.

There was a collective and audible sigh as the tower, still rocking from her move and its ever diminishing foundation finally stilled. 

This simple children's game reminds me of how we tend to lift and revere certain people up in our lives.

“He speaks so passionately. He is just amazing... I would follow him and his preaching where-ever he goes.”

“This author's writing is breathtakingly brilliant. If only I could write like that...”

“She is so real, with her talks about dirt on the floors and crazy kid moments. She's so pretty and fun... I wish I could be like her.”

And there they are...

Our tendencies to lift these people up.

Polishing them with a cloth and placing them high for all to see on a beautifully gilded pedestal of our own design...

And then I hear the shocking words of a good friend of mine pop into my head,

“I think I need to spit on you now and just get this over with.”

She was responding to a woman gushing over her and praising her talents as a Bible teacher and speaker.

She noted the sincere woman's words went far beyond encouragement and were trickling into a lofty ideal she knew she couldn't possibly live up to.

Isn't it true though?

Eventually people will let you down. Sometimes in direct proportion to how high the pedestal is in which we set them on...

Is it any wonder God had to utter this reminder to His people again and again?

Exodus 20:2-4

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

Lifting them up on this pedestal is making them our idol.

Like my sweet children's game of wooden blocks, we detract from our foundation in Christ in an effort to place these people ever higher on tottering towers.

We become as the Israelites, choosing to stumble down into the ever welcoming trap of slavery yet again.

Willingly, we shackle ourselves to the binding chains of comparison.

Our outlooks imprisoned to strive for an image we never can, nor ever should, try to be.

And when our lovely idols spit on us?

When their dirty laundry is exposed for all to see and their tottering tower leans too far from the weight of our expectations?

When it breaks and crumbles to the ground?

We discover we are stumbling in a downward spiral with them...

Feeling betrayed and broken.

Haven't we all been there at some point or another?

Let us remember,

Galatians 5:1

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Who are you lifting high today?






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