Uncover and Uproot: How Hidden Idols Take Up Space in Our Hearts

It felt how I imagine an anxiety attack would feel.

My heart suddenly burst through my chest, hammering at an alarming rate. My thoughts raced like the horses at the Kentucky Derby, playing scenarios and what ifs on repeat. Unexpected tears fell from my eyes at the enormity of the transgression, and breaths came in short gasps.

This was the moment I realized I’d been hacked on Instagram. Many people have reached out since I got my account back to share a similar experience of their own. A few even had the great misfortune of losing both an Instagram and a Facebook account, and the thousands of photos collected over the years.

You might wonder why my reaction was so visceral, so physically taxing, and the answer is simple. Through losing my account and fighting to get it back I learned just how much this social media outlet meant to me.

As a writer and a lover of visual communication, aka photos, I use Instagram as another outlet for sharing my writing with readers. It’s also a tool I use to learn what resonates and what doesn’t with those readers, a testing ground of sorts.

And, let’s call a spade a spade, it’s just plain fun to scroll through other people’s pictures.

Instagram is important from a professional standpoint because it helps me build connections with other writers I can help support and develop relationships with new and returning readers.

But when the fluttery, panicked and frantic feelings flooded my nervous system I learned this tool occupied much more in my life than simply as a means to a professional end. It became quite clear this app on my phone is what I turned to in moments of quiet downtime or to catch up with what people did in stories the day before at breakfast.

I wrote previously how this opened my eyes to the need for stronger online security here, but it also opened my eyes to the presence of an idol in my life. An idol that literally produced an anxiety attack when uprooted.

The Good, The Bad, and The Sneaky

The bible tells us all things work together for our good, meaning there is room for God to teach us a lesson in all our experiences if our hearts are open and willing to learn.

While I don’t believe God led this shady, underhanded person from New York City (that’s right, I know where you are) to hack my account, I do believe it was an excellent opportunity for Him to challenge and convict me about how much of my heart was taken over by Instagram.

Maybe in your life this looks like an obsession with physical fitness that goes beyond simply putting your health first, having that expensive ‘handcrafted’ coffee in a paper cup, or always needing to feel approval from those around you. Idols, though manmade, can be as sneaky as the serpent in the garden, taking many different forms based on our weaknesses.

Will it hurt? Uncover and Uproot

The good news is you don’t have to go through a traumatic hacking experience to uncover the idols lurking in your heart. God is gracious and kind to us, and if we earnestly ask Him to uncover them, He will. He wants to help us uncover and uproot the idols, however small they might seem to us, so our whole heart can belong to Him.

The bad news is uprooting those idols is still going to hurt. How bad it hurts depends on how deeply rooted they are, how much space they already take up in your heart.

Ripping them out of the soil of your heart will sting and might even cause you to question if this is really the right thing to do. After all, wouldn’t it be easier and less painful if you live and let live, leaving the weeds to grow unbothered? Growth is never easy, and it inevitably leaves some bruises from when we stumble along the way.

It’s a pruning process. The azalea bushes in front of my house will never bloom to their full potential if we don’t go out each year to trim away the parts that need cutting away. Don’t be scared. God is an excellent gardener.

Honor the Struggle

What I can assure you is God is so much sweeter and satisfying than anything else occupying your heart. If you choose to take the rocky path of uncovering and uprooting idols, I can promise a deeper well of intimacy than before you began your journey.

You’ll find in some moments you want to give up on clearing away the idols and weeds, to turn back. These are the moments to draw from the well, to pull up another measure of the life-giving grace which flows like water out of the rock from our friend Jesus.

Remember, God doesn’t abandon us in the struggle, and He promises those who seek will find. By uprooting the hidden idols in your life, you are in a struggle to be closer to God, and He will honor that struggle. He isn’t going anywhere.