How to share Jesus by smashing a two-headed statue with a club

The following is based on a fictional true story:

Once upon a time in a land far away, there was a village famous for its extravagant and diverse idol worship. The Villagers worshiped everything from big idols to small idols to bronze idols to silver idols, even two-headed idols with multiple limbs.

One day a missionary came to tell the Villagers about Jesus but after years of rejection, he got dangerously creative...

He got up in the middle of the night and smashed every single idol but one. He left the biggest scariest meanest looking idol standing.

The entire village went into an uproar the next morning. All their idols were broken into pieces... all but one who was standing with a large club wedged between his folded arms.

What could this mean? Who could have done this?

The temple priests were about to offer sacrifices when the missionary offered an explanation.

‘I know what happened’, he said.

‘Obviously the idols disagreed about something last night and got into a big fight that led to the big one beating up everyone else’

‘Are you serious?’ said one of the baffled priests.

‘Yes’ replied the missionary.

‘I’m telling you, the big one did it. Look, he’s even holding a club’

The entire village looked at him like he was crazy but the missionary vehemently defended his thoughts. Finally a respected village elder walked up to the missionary and said...

‘Hey, they are idols. We made them. They don’t talk or walk and I can assure you they don’t fight’

‘Then why do you worship them?’ said the missionary.

*That-was-obvious-all-along-but-we-chose-to-ignore-it-light-bulb: ON

I know its kind of corny and you probably called the end of the story from the very beginning. Good for you but please don’t miss the point.

How often do we live like the villagers? How often do we ‘worship’ and chase things we know can’t ultimately satisfy us? How often do we close our eyes and jump in blindly without acknowledging the obvious?

All the time.

We spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need so we can impress people we don’t know.
We search for intimacy by watching sex on a computer screen.
We try to satisfy our desire for deep real life relationships ONLINE...

I could go on and on.

Yes ‘truth’ can be complicated but sometimes it’s as easy as stepping back and acknowledging what is obvious. I really think like the villagers, most of us KNOW deep down in our hearts when we make choices that can’t ultimately deliver.

And like the Villagers, we have a choice. We can continue to deceive ourselves or we can face obvious truths in our lives and be free.

Today's question is a tough one to answer so I won’t be surprised if not too many people share. Fill in the blank.

I sometimes chase after or do _______ even though I know deep down it can’t deliver.