It’s amazing how I can ruin ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING.

Like a MAD ALCHEMIST, I can transform worship into a thing that’s ALL ABOUT ME. What a tragic irony! When this happens, it’s not really worship, that’s just the easily swallowed self-lie.

King Saul didn’t follow directions: he followed his own agenda and when confronted he pretended it was all done in the name of worship. Samuel saw through that, and had a few things to say that stopped me COLD this morning:

“To obey is better than sacrifice …. and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” (1 Sa 15:22-23)

I get the first part…I need to do what I know to be right even if it conflicts the way I like to worship.

The part about arrogance was like being thrown into the ocean right next to a polar ice cap. When I catch pride in my life, I give myself a gentle reminder to get down off the high horse. I read this passage and then mentally shout, “MCGILL, DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD FEELS ABOUT IDOLATRY!?” (It’s rhetorical, but I refuse to believe in rhetorical questions.)

This is my challenge today: to remember that arrogance is idolatry. The person who worships himself has a fool for a god.