Earthly things can become gods to us

Sports: In the U.S., a number of sports dominate conversation and capture our passions. Many Americans, most often men, know the statistics of players and coaches, history of teams, team colors and sponsors and so forth much better than our beliefs or the Bible.
Entertainment: Many people around the world worship celebrities and know more about them than Jesus Christ. John Lennon once made this point in an interview (and people were upset). People wait in line to see a new movie, but can’t be bothered to get to church. A three-hour movie is fine, but a three-hour service, no way.
Sex: This should be obvious. People have made pornography and condoms big business. They will gladly give up faithfulness to God to either have sex or a romantic connection.
Religion: Our interest in our church can become more important to us than God, especially if our religion is not pleasing to God, or if it brings money or valuable business contacts. This happens a lot and brings disaster. When priests, pastors or other ministers are exposed as adulterers or pedophiles, or found to be taking money for their own pleasures, or abusing power, their focus was likely not on God. St. Paul warns us about this.
 
These are a few anyway, there are too many to list, but we can discover our own. Where do we spend our time, and what do we learn the most about? What do we think most about? A grown Christian should have read the Bible often enough to know most of it and quote quite a bit. For Catholics like myself, we should know the Catechism as well, and we should all be familiar with some great books, like C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity” and “The Four Loves.” Bonhoeffer’s “Cost of Discipleship” is good and many others. If we have not put time into good reading nearly every day, something else may be our god. It happens a bit at a time, as we begin to care more and more about something or someone. It is gradual, as we often fail to see it happening.
 
This is worthy of an entire book, but I hope this little bit helps. It may raise more questions, which is good. It is so easy to be distracted, just as Jesus said.
 
Thank you for reading our site. We will pray for you tonight, that your faith and dedication to Jesus will grow and grow. Please pray for us, too.