"Who knows what idolatry is?"
The question was asked of two girls, four and six, in a quiet room on a quiet Thursday night in the middle of a lesson from the book of Joshua. The six year old remained quiet, but it was the four year old's hand that shot straight up.
"It's an animal or something that people say is God ... but it's not God." She shook her head emphatically, dead serious. And despite stifling giggles at her solemnity, I, sitting next to her, couldn't have said it better myself. This smart four year old already knows what millions of adults have yet to understand: Idolatry is saying God is anything He's not. That could mean worshiping an animal, an image, a statue, money, fame, family, friends, food, sports, physical pleasures. Or it could be a redefined version of God, a god who doesn't send anyone to hell, a god who is not all-powerful, a god who is not sovereign, a god who is not loving. Worshiping these gods is just as idolatrous as worshiping a statue or money.
The definition of idolatry seems so simple. Even a four year old can understand it. But why is it so hard to live out? Why are our eyes drawn away from the True God to gods fashioned by men, gods made up in overactive imaginations, and gods built around physical pleasure? Why do our wayward hearts tempt us to go astray? The simple (yet oh-so complex) answer is because we're sinners, and sinning is what we do. Of course that doesn't make it right, and so crying out to God in repentance is the only appropriate response. When we're attracted to the gods of the world, there is just one thing we can say and we say it with Eleanor Hull,
"Prone to wander, Lord I feel it / Prone to leave the God I love / Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it / Seal it for Thy courts above."