The word "idol" is defined as "a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered". That being said, there's a lot of things we idolize in today's world. We idolize money. We idolize people. We idolize fame, popularity, good looks. But are any of these things really worthy of the title "idol"?

To illustrate my point, let me share a little story. About a week ago, I took my lovely, expensive, and revered camera out of its case to snap some high quality pics at an event. Long story short, about an hour later, I was running home with a soaking wet camera after my Canon took a nice little dunk in a nearby fountain. To say the least, I was pretty upset. I immediately starting putting myself down for this mistake. And it didn't help that I'd been up till 2 AM the night before trying to fix my broken computer. So there I was with a water-logged camera, a malfunctioning computer, and a tear-stained face. In addition to my broken electronics, my spirit was pretty broken. And that got me thinking about idols.

The depth of my emotion showed me that I was idolizing these things. I was revering expensive, beloved, and (wait for it) REPLACEABLE things. Was that really the most important thing in life? Was that really something worth being so upset over?

In short, the answer is no. I can live without any electronic, or any item for that matter. What I can't live without is love, faith, and the wonderful people in my life. What I can't live without is my relationship with God and all the wonderful experiences this life has brought me.

Immediately after dropping my camera, I asked God why this happened to me. But it didn't take long for me to realize the answer. You see at first this experience, to put it eloquently, absolutely sucked. But then it became something more. It became a lesson in idols, in learning what's important. It became a lesson in forgiving myself and even more, accepting myself as the flawed human being I am. It became a lesson in separating my identity from any THING and finding it in God's love.

So I encourage you to think this week about the idols in your life. To make a list of the things you can't live without and see how many items make the list.

Oh and by the way, my camera and computer ended up making a full recovery. But that's not really the point of this story now is it?