Functional Saviors

Mark Driscoll is the lead minister at Mars Hill Church. I read a blog that shared a story Mark had related. Here it is:

Mark shared a story of a visit he made a couple years ago to India. While touring the region with a local pastor and his wife, he came across some form of sacrificial alter to a local idol - complete with a recent sacrificed chicken still present.

While standing there, he happened to be in conversation with the pastor's wife about the United States. She had visited once before, and Mark asked her if she would ever return. The essence of her reply, "not on my life, there is so much idol worship there, that I don't ever want to see again."

Standing next to the sacrificed chicken, Mark found this ironic, so he explored what she meant. He asked her for examples, because he just wasn't aware of anything even remotely similar in the States to what he was currently viewing.

The woman was quick with her examples:

"you have restaurants on every corner, celebrating your worship of food"

"you build these fantastic stadiums, seating 10's of thousands, to worship your sporting heroes"

"the decadence in your shopping malls, everyone needing to be fashionable"

"the extravagence of your theaters and concerts - worshiping your cultural stars"
Ouch....

You know what? From listening to Mark's account, it is true that cultural idolatry that has overtaken God in so many areas of our society, and the various hells they create:

the "i need to be skinny" hell
the "my neighbor has the Lexus" hell
the "I need an iPod" hell
the "I need to find approval" hell (ok - I added that one)

This cultural idolatry is our desire to create "functional saviors" - material or temporal "answers to our dreams". Things that if we can only attain, our life will be better. Let me plunge the knife deeper:

How often do we get mad at God because He doesn't allow these functional saviors to be the answer to making our life better? Do you find it ironic that we get mad at God for not helping us to put other idols in front of Him?

I'm not ranting against materialism. I am, however, warning against our nature to turn "good things into God things, making them bad things."

What hell do you choose most often? What good thing have you turned into (or are busy converting into) a god thing?