What's 'Consuming' You?

In my younger years, I found identity and meaning in collecting things, in particular Civil War artifacts.  I mean my idea of a great day would be finding a new Civil War belt-buckle – sword – photograph – cannon ball or bullet.  You could say, for a while, my whole life was ‘wrapped up’ in collecting these extraneous, extra-curricular -- but for me -- exciting objects!  

But in fairness to me, a lot of us are ‘wrapped up’ in extraneous, extra-curricular objects or causes: could be NASCAR or the Redskins, could be left-wing or right wing politics, could be the Rotary or Moose Club.  Now there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with extraneous, extra-curricular passions -- but if you get too ‘wrapped up’ in such things -- ‘consumed’ by such things -- we do risk idolatry, because we risk, in the words of Tim Keller, “…making good things into ultimate things…” - Tim Keller.     So beware:  don’t make good things ultimate things.  Sure, have extra-curricular passions, but don’t make extra-curricular passions your ultimate passion.  Be consumed by God and God and God alone!  

For what consumes us has huge implications; in fact, it’s critical to know:  what 'consumes' you is ultimately what you become.  Be ‘consumed’ by Yahweh, the one true God and you become like Yahweh – good, strong, saved.  Be ‘consumed’ by anything or anyone else and you become like that thing or person – commendable, but ultimately inadequate, unable to save.  

Frankly, that why Yahweh is so riled up in Ezekiel 6; the Hebrews are clearly being ‘consumed’ by Baal, Ashtoreth, Molech; they’re depending on entities other than the one true God, and Yahweh sees the result:  life’s unraveling, ‘heading south.’ And so Yahweh is very jealous, very zealous “… [demolishing]…altars… [devastating] idols…” (Ezekiel 6:6) – ‘cleaning house,’ all in an attempt to ultimately save His people.

We need to do likewise; we need to ‘clean house,’ eliminating anything that competes with God, that clutters, that ‘gets in the way,’ of Yahweh’s shaping influence.    

Can I let you in on a secret?  When life heads south for me, when things start to unravel, I frantically begin to clean my house; anybody else do that?  I mean I go crazy, running around the house with a trash bag -- looking for anything and everything I can eliminate -- or as we use to say in Halfway, MD, ‘red-up’ -- all in a desperate attempt to get life under control.  And so want to get your house cleaned – find me on a really lousy day!!

But frankly God delights in my obsession -- especially if it translates into ‘cleaning up’ my emotional, spiritual clutter, you know the emotional, spiritual stuff -- bad habits, dependencies -- that soil and crowd out God.   Because as that stuff clutters my life, ‘builds up’ in my life, I depend more on the stuff, than the Savior.  

Tim Keller once again helps, pointing out the stuff we depend on other than God.   “… [depend on], center…life…on… work and career [and] you’ll be a driven workaholic and a boring shallow person…”…[depend on], center…life…on money and possessions [and] you’ll be eaten up by worry…about money….[depend on], center life…on relationships and [the] approval [of others, and] you’ll be…overly hurt by criticism and…always losing friends…”  - Tim Keller [The Reason For God, pp. 275-276]      

But depend on,  center life on the Savior – and you’ll be saved from all the stuff, all the spiritual, emotional clutter – that tends to bring life down.

Depend on, center life on the Savior!