Reading Francis

Abandoning Temples is kind of a mouthful for a title. 

When I started this project, what jumped out at me first were the idols that I’d put in God’s place – things like pride and control and purpose and relationships and distractions. My life was (and, let’s face it, is) out of whack when I make idols of things like this. 

But that doesn’t make them bad things; far from it. They’re just things that I’ve overvalued. What I’m learning is that, for me, I need to abandon some of these idols altogether, but a lot more just need to be repurposed or put back in their rightful place. So Abandoning Temples is not about dumping everything but God. It’s about identifying where we’ve built temples to things that don’t deserve them and how to decide what to repurpose, what to reconsecrate, and what we just need to cast aside.

I got a lot of suggestions for snappier titles, but they all sounded like they were for a book of tidy self-help tips. “Go dump your idols!” Stuff like that. This isn’t that kind of book. There is not a clear 5-step action plan for you to implement. This is a peek into my ongoing journey to answer the questions of who God is, who we are, and what I put in God’s place. My hope is that it helps you ask and answer those same questions for yourself. Then I’d love for it to start a conversation about those answers. 

I’m hoping to have a couple big announcements about the launch in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!