Idols of the Modern Age

“How foolish are those who manufacture idols. These prized objects are really worthless. The people who worship idols don’t know this, so they are all put to shame.” Isaiah 44:9 NLT

The world is saturated with technology and the use of it. As a Network Engineer by trade, I am surrounded by technology everyday. With the constant changes in technology, it is a real task keeping up, but technology has been so helpful in making everyday tasks simpler and convenient to complete. What used to require pen, paper, and above average math skills can now be completed with a couple of key strokes and a click of a mouse. That was the intended purpose of technology right? To make things easier? Unfortunately, our world today is so consumed by technology that our lives are not only easier but our lives simply revolve around it.

Just a few weeks ago, I was eating at Cotton Patch with my mom and I noticed a family of five sitting at a table but none of them were talking to each other. They all had their eyes glued to their 5 inch screens. It got me thinking about when I was a kid and cell phones were the size of a brick and had an antenna. As strange as this sounds, cell phones back then had only one function and that was to make phone calls. It’s an alien idea given that smartphones are hardly ever used today for what they were originally designed to do but I digress. Every Sunday after church, we would go to CiCi’s pizza where we would eat, fellowship, and play games in the arcade room in the back. It was a time we all looked forward to. Now moments like that aren’t cherish because people are too consumed with checking their likes on Facebook, hash-tagging and posting stories on Instagram, taking ridiculous looking filtered selfies using Snapchat, or making last minute changes to their Fantasy Football roster. But it’s not just the dinner table that cell phones have taken over; it’s everywhere.

The next time you are at a red light, take a glance over at the driver in the lane next to you. You won’t have to worry about making awkward eye contact with random drivers because you’ll find most of them looking down at their hands. If it’s dark enough, their faces are usually illuminated by the glow of their phone. Not only that, the excessive use of smartphones is prevalent in church services. It is not uncommon these days for a cell phone to go off in the middle of a service. And some people just cannot help themselves to check-in on Facebook. Many people have become slaves to their mobile devices and cannot break free from it. For many, smartphones and social media have become idols. Idols don’t necessarily have to be in the form of statues and graven images. Idols are anything that come before God or anything you give more of your time to than you give to God.

I once had idols of my own. In 2014, I turned to a popular first person shooter sci-fi video game. My entire life revolved around this game and the people I played with online. When I wasn’t at work, I was sitting in front of my TV wearing a headset and mashing buttons on a controller. I played this game so much that I was streaming it on Twitch and had a YouTube channel of my gameplay highlights. This went on for many months until one night, God got my attention through a vivid dream. When I woke up, I realized I had made entertainment an idol. When it was all said and done, I had logged close to 3,000 hours playing this one game. I was so convicted and ashamed of what I had become that the very next day I got rid of my PlayStation and all of my games vowing to never again let material things take God’s place in my life. If you do the math, 3,000 hours is a little over four straight months of nonstop gameplay. There was a time I would have been proud of those numbers because it meant I was an elite gamer but now I am ashamed that I wasted so much time doing something that has no eternal value. Those are four months of my life I will never get back. All I can think is ‘what if I had spent that time on my knees seeking God and drawing closer to Him?’ Despite my regrets, I learned a valuable lesson about putting God first and making prayer a priority. With renewed spiritual eyes, I see teenagers and young adults today who are making the same mistakes that I once made. They are wasting a ton of time on their phones, social media, and their gaming consoles. My heart breaks for them and the generation living in this digital age.

Mobile Phone Stats for 2017

Just recently, God showed me something from the parable of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22. A lot of Christians today are very similar to the rich young ruler. They keep the commands and they are good people; however, they love material things more than God. If I were to ask the question, “who do you love more, God or your possessions?”, without any hesitation most people would say God. But what if God were to ask you to delete your social media accounts, sell your smartphone, and end your subscription to Netflix? Would you do it without hesitation or would you have to think about it because great are the number of followers and subscribers you have?

One day we will all have to stand before God and give an account for our deeds. Will God say, “Well done good and faithful servant” or will He say, “depart from Me for I never knew you?” (Matthew 7:21-23) I can imagine a lot of Christians on that day will say “Lord, Lord I went to church faithfully. I tithed regularly. I kept your commands. I was good!” But God will say “I never knew you.” Unfortunately, a lot of Christians will hear those words from God because they spent more time on their phones and social media than they did in prayer. Prayer is the only way we can truly know the heart of God. Without prayer, we are disconnected from Him. Leonard Ravenhill once said “No man is greater than his prayer life.” It is profound but there is a lot of truth to it. Perhaps it is time we cast down our idols and return to our knees.

Idols of the Modern Age – Part 2