Road Trip

Today, Susan and I drove down to Cerritos to visit the grandparents. Susan and I are dropping the kids off with her parents for about a week. We left our house at 6:30 AM. It was an exciting drive as Meg threw up her chocolate milk about 30 minutes after we left Folsom. We pulled over, changed Meg's clothes, cleaned up the car and got back on the road. Only to have her throw up again before we made it to the next off ramp. The second time was way worse than the first. I guess I should have known better when she said her tummy still hurt.

Watching your kids puke is not fun, especially when you have another seven hours in the car smelling that wonderful scent. Luckily, I have a very poor sense of smell. (Susan usually makes me clean up the worst diapers because I can't smell very well). Unfortunately, Susan has a super strong sense of smell so we drove with the windows rolled down - a lot. Which was helpful considering that when we pulled over to clean up Meg we stopped by the side of the road near a field of cows. The flies from the cows decided that they liked Meg's vomit smell better than the cows and so our car was full of flies within minutes of stopping to clean up. We were shooing them out the car windows for hours. Maybe all this is too much information, but I thought those of you who are parents might be able to relate. The good news is that Meg's tummy stopped hurting after the second the round of throwing up.

Tomorrow, we are headed down to Legoland again for a fun day and then we are driving back up to Folsom on Saturday without the kids. I am going to be taking next week off and staying home to rest and work on projects. Susan and I are going to attempt to paint and stain our stair railing. Sounds simple enough, but house projects usually take me five times longer than I expect. I am really looking forward to being back in time to speak this Sunday because our series, After God's Own Heart, has been inspiring to me. This Sunday, we are talking about one of the most life changing things that I have ever experienced. We'll be looking at the story of Abraham and the time when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about American Idols. I thought about that a lot on the drive down today. I kept thinking about how each of us is tempted to create our own personal hell that we want to avoid. It may be a fear of loneliness hell, or fear of boredom hell, or fear of insignificance hell. Advertisers usually help us create our own personal version of hell that we will do anything to avoid. They usually put in our mind an idea that unless we buy their product or experience or our life will be missing something important.

After creating our personal hell we often find our own personal savior to rescue us. The savior might be a relationship that rescues us from loneliness hell. Or the savior might be an experience like a trip or a sport to rescue us from boredom hell. Or the savior might be success at work or owning something important to rescue us from insignificance hell. These are just examples. Each of us is tempted to fear our own hell and seek out our own savior to rescue us.

The Bible says that this process of creating our own version of hell and seeking a savior to rescue us is called idolatry. Idolatry happens when we look to anyone or anything other than God to bring us ultimate security, significance, or joy. I have seen a lot of Christians get caught up in worshipping their job, a sport, a relationship, their house, their kids, etc. Whatever they think will help them escape their personal version of hell. We often don't think that we are committing a sin by doing this, but this process is actually idol worship and violating one of the ten commandments.

"You shall have no other gods before me. "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments." Exodus 20:3-6

So I guess the question is, "Do you have your own version of hell that you are trying to avoid? What are you afraid of?" And if so, "Who or what are you looking at to rescue you and be your savior?" Those are some of the questions I have been asking myself today.

The good news is that God loves to meet our needs and help us escape the idolatry of our own personal hell. The apostle Paul put it this way, "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19 The bad news about idols is that they always disappoint us. The good news is that Jesus never does!