Last week, I was reading the book, Celebration of Discipline, by Richard J. Foster. This book talks about spiritual disciplines and how to implement them into your life. While reading the chapter on worship, this caught me off guard:

“Service flows out of worship. Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry.”

Could a thing as good and Godly as service become idolatry?

When discussing with others, I discovered that most people responded to this statement with: Service can become idolatry if it is done out of reasons other than for God. An example of this would be serving because it make you feel better about yourself.  That is one way to view this statement by Foster, and it makes total sense. However, I thought of it differently.

My service is for God. I feel that God has called me to serve, but have I been focusing on service so much that I have missed other ways in which God has called me to live?

I have been putting a lot of my focus on service for the past few years of my life. Through participating in several missions trips, service has become a huge part of my faith. Had I made service a bigger part of my faith then I should? And how do I know?

I think after reading and discussing this topic, I will be intentional about exploring other areas of my faith.

Please let me know your thoughts on this statement by Foster and how it would apply to your life! Also, if service has become a form of idolatry, how do we address it?