Idolatry?

Yes, you are right, we are long past the age of carving idols out of wood and stone and to be frank, idolatry was not a sin that worried me very much. I have far greater sins to work on and after all I have moved past the issue of money and materials things as idols.
That is until a few weeks ago when God brought me face to face with a truth that I had failed to grasp up to this point. Several readings through the Ten Commandments confirmed it. Idolatry is any thing that distracts our focus from God. Sure that makes sense, a carved image draws our focus towards the image. But what about that misspelled word in the PowerPoint presentation last Sunday? What about the deacon who tells you that he needs to talk to you right after the service? What about that song that you didn't understand a word of today? What about that music leader who clearly knew he was supposed to call on people to stand as they sing? What about that budget committee that recommended cutting your favorite church program or pet project? What did they all do, they distracted the focus from God.
So what do you call something that distracts the focus from God? Idolatry, right? If all these things, and more that could be added to the list, are a part of church life, how can we keep it from being idolatry? Here is the message God spoke to me. First, I have to confess that it is idolatry because I allowed my focus to be distracted from God. All these things could have happened and I could have kept my focus on God, but I let it distract me, usually because it raised some issue of fear of loss and because I don't especially like losing stuff I have found it too easy to turn from the one thing I really can not and do not want to loose, a constant awareness of God and focus on the possibility of lesser losses.
Sure, I know full well I can not live in a world where there are no efforts to distract my focus from God, but what I can do is to so clearly focus my energy on drawing as close to God as I can and learning more and more to love and long for Him, the distractions loose their power to make me fear the loss they threaten to bring. I can simply say, "I see you there, I recognize that you are an issue to be dealt with but I do not fear you and I will not allow you to turn my focus from God. In fact I am going to use you to turn me even more intently to God as I seek His guidance to deal with you."
Can you imagine what a difference it could make to you and to your Church if you stopped allowing occurrences of life to distract you from God? I have learned and you will too, you can't and don't need to stop the occurrences, what you need to do is trust God more completely. When God truly does become all you want and need, who can take anything away from you and cause you to grasp idolatrously after that which threatens loss?