Acting Like Fools
Laughing Fool
Have you ever had a good deed thrown back in your face?
Something you have done that has gone unacknowledged, or someone else has tried to claim the deed for themselves?
Do you find that frustrating? Annoying? Rude?
Imagine how God must feel…
Exodus 32:7-14
7 The Lord said to Moses:
Hurry back down! Those people you led out of Egypt are acting like fools. 8 They have already stopped obeying me and have made themselves an idol in the shape of a young bull. They have bowed down to it, offered sacrifices, and said that it is the god who brought them out of Egypt. 9 Moses, I have seen how stubborn these people are, 10 and I’m angry enough to destroy them, so don’t try to stop me. But I will make your descendants into a great nation.
11 Moses tried to get the Lord God to change his mind:
Our Lord, you used your mighty power to bring these people out of Egypt. Now don’t become angry and destroy them. 12 If you do, the Egyptians will say that you brought your people out here into the mountains just to get rid of them. Please don’t be angry with your people. Don’t destroy them!
13 Remember the solemn promise you made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You promised that someday they would have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky and that you would give them land.
14 So even though the Lord had threatened to destroy the people, he changed his mind and let them live.
After all God had done for the people, leading them out of Egypt – a place of slavery, and bringing them to Israel – a land of promise. After all he had done, they still want an idol to worship. They can’t focus and rely on him, they want something else.
After all God has done for me…
Is he the focus of my life?
Or do I act like a fool?
Do I want to replace him with something inconsequential? An object of my adoration that is not real? Or not worthy?
It’s easy to condemn the people for being so easily and quickly distracted and led astray – but am I any different?
Forgive me Lord
when I have made idols of the wrong things,
objects in my life that I have given undue importance,
idols I have built with my own hands,
times when I don’t acknowledge your place.
Lord,I give them to you,
sorry for what I have done,
I bring them to be smashed.
May you alone
be the object of my adoration
and worship
Pam's Perambulation 
“Do I want to replace him with something inconsequential? An object of my adoration that is not real? Or not worthy?”
And the temptation can be very, very sublte… the object of my adoration can so easily be something that, on the surface, is very real, very worthy… it is so, so easy to make an idol out of “serving God” as defined by ourselves.
Or to make an idol out of a “selfless self-givng” which is actualy self-punishment, a kind of self-martyring.
Oh for the gift of discernment… to know what is of God and to be pursued at all costs and to know what is an oh-so-subtle temptation to put self back firmly on the throne… “look at Me, My self-sacrifice, My offering of Myself, My love, My goodness…”
Lord, grant me the grace and the wisdom to live and to declare “look at Him, His self-sacrifice, His offering of Himself, His goodness…”. Lord, preserve me from subtle sins.
Amen