{"id":51,"date":"2010-03-31T08:36:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T08:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html"},"modified":"2010-03-31T08:36:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T08:36:00","slug":"lenten-reflections-little-idolatries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html","title":{"rendered":"Lenten Reflections: Little Idolatries"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s such a mundane decision. Such a paltry “sacrifice.” Don’t drink alcohol, except on Sundays, for the next seven weeks. What on earth does that have to do with Jesus’ death and resurrection? With sin and salvation? With fullness of life and God’s glory?<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
I remember reading the Exodus account of the Golden Calf when I was in college. It’s a classic story–Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt and they are in the wilderness and Moses disappears for a while to receive the Ten Commandments. He returns, only to find that they have constructed an idol in the shape of a cow and started to worship it (see Exodus 32<\/a>). I remember thinking, what on earth does this story have to do with my life, with Christians here and now? I felt so dismissive of those Israelites. But then it struck me, as I fingered a gold earring and realized how much I cared about material goods, that I was just like the Israelites. “We are idol-making factories,” a preacher once said.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Yep. That’s me. An idol-making factory. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Lent, at a minimum, has exposed once again how easily I substitute habits of consumption for habits of the heart. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A few days into Lent, Peter mentioned that he wants to divide the year into 40 day increments and come up with a different practice to take up or fast from all year round. We considered the possibilities: pray together for 40 days, give something away every day for 40 days, wake up and read the Bible every day for 40 days, give up caffeine, give up meat, drive the speed limit… I’m not sure I have it in me, but I can only imagine what it would expose about my little idolatries to practice any of these disciplines. Of course, exposing idolatry is only the first step. The second step is to recognize how those idols wound me, how they lead me away from who I am in God’s image, who I am as a part of the body of Christ. And the third step is to receive God’s grace, God’s forgiveness for all my little idolatries, God’s call for me to turn instead and worship him. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s such a mundane decision. Such a paltry “sacrifice.” Don’t drink alcohol, except on Sundays, for the next seven weeks. What on earth does that have to do with Jesus’ death and resurrection? With sin and salvation? With fullness of life and God’s glory? I remember reading the Exodus account of the Golden Calf when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\nLenten Reflections: Little Idolatries - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lenten Reflections: Little Idolatries - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s such a mundane decision. Such a paltry “sacrifice.” Don’t drink alcohol, except on Sundays, for the next seven weeks. What on earth does that have to do with Jesus’ death and resurrection? With sin and salvation? With fullness of life and God’s glory? I remember reading the Exodus account of the Golden Calf when…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-31T08:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lenten Reflections: Little Idolatries - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lenten Reflections: Little Idolatries - Thin Places","og_description":"It’s such a mundane decision. Such a paltry “sacrifice.” Don’t drink alcohol, except on Sundays, for the next seven weeks. What on earth does that have to do with Jesus’ death and resurrection? With sin and salvation? With fullness of life and God’s glory? I remember reading the Exodus account of the Golden Calf when…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-03-31T08:36:00+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html","name":"Lenten Reflections: Little Idolatries - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-03-31T08:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-03-31T08:36:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/lenten-reflections-little-idolatries.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lenten Reflections: Little Idolatries"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}