If I am serving idols
And my heart, unfaithful to you,
Offers anything at all to them
It's as though I never knew you.
I've laid my life before them
Sought their favors with my own;
My heart, adulterated,
Forgot what it had known.
It has closed the temple doors
And erected stone and wood
Called "selfishness" or "money"
Or "here is the greater good."
I am serving idols,
Lifting my eyes to their fires,
Forgetting the one and only God,
The devotion he requires.
There is no God but Yahweh,
This my mouth will swear,
But without realizing it,
I've stripped the temple bare.
Like sheep led to the shearer
He was silent, for he gave
The choice to leave or follow;
And so I chose the grave.
I am serving idols,
For I forgot the love
That has given me the choice.
But are idols quite enough?
"Anger" calls my name quite freely,
To "relationships" I bow.
"Yesterday" and "tomorrow,"
I've given them my "now."
"Pride" has my devotion,
"Vanity" a shrine.
"Sloth," "lust," and "complacency,"
I have made their altars mine.
I am serving idols,
But again, they do not fill
The need, desire, or call for love
That the One True God will.
Despite their whining protests
That quickly turn to wrath,
I lift my eyes to Yahweh,
My feet to tread his path.
I have served those idols,
Tempting me to sacred places-
Their hands reach out to grab me
With destruction on their faces.
But my mouth will swear that Yahweh
Is God and God alone.
And now my heart has called him
And made itself his throne.
I have served those idols,
And they know it well.
But I know, have known, better
That they are why I fell.
My heart, adulterated,
Cries to be reconciled,
And despite my utter failures,
He calls me yet his child.
He drives the idols from me,
He smashes stone and wood,
And I am in his temple,
The idols gone for good.
I have served those idols,
But Yahweh's God alone.
If I want to flee the idols
I can't do so on my own.
And despite my lusts for idols,
My God loves me too well
To leave me bruised and broken
In the places where I fell.
I do not choose the idols,
But rather he who is
Above all worthless idols
And has made this sinner his.
postscript
This was actually written in March. I don't think it's particularly well-written, but it was done in a fit of anger and disgust at myself.