[insert idol here]

          I'm going to admit this. Today, on my way home from school, Justin Beiber came on the radio. His new song is I believe called, "As Long As You Love Me". It's pretty typical of a poppy love song, catchy tune and lyrics. I am not sure whether it was in a burst of depression that I was listening to this with my windows rolled down, or that I had a sort of epiphany, but my mind jumped to a very solid thought; we all worship.
          Christians do it differently than Muslims, Jews do it differently than Buddhists, Sikhs do it differently than Jehovah's Witness, and Mormons do it differently than Atheists. Yep, even those who don't believe in a god worship. Man has, at the center of his being/heart/spirit/central nervous system, the longing to fixate on something. For some it is "love" in the Justin Beiber sense. For others it's the allure of pleasure; whether it be sex, drugs, or alcohol. For others still it's the draw of power, of fame, of glory.
          Most people won't call it worship because that is a sacrilegious way to think of things. But take the concept of worship and just replace God with your particular thing. I give my money to _____, I spend my time with/for ____, I love ____. Take most love songs, remove the sexual tension from the music, and replace the words focused for a man or woman with God or Jesus and you have a worship song. We worship one another, we worship fame, wealth, health, pleasure, and some even worship pain.
          We are all worshipers, designed to fixate on our Creator in our heart of hearts, giving Him all the glory, all the praise, all the songs, all of us. But being broken at the garden, our hearts have that perpetually discussed vacuum that attempts to force a square peg into a round hole; it just doesn't fit and can't fill the void. I go beyond the design concept in that some stop at gender and roles when thinking about God creating us. He also created hearts that burn to know Him. Our hearts have been tainted by the world, all the while being drawn away from the loving God that created us. We set out in a desert of hopelessness trying to accomplish something ourselves that we could never do.
          But there is hope. The hope that lies within Jesus. We can become those true worshipers we were meant to be through the salvation of Jesus. We all worship, we all praise, we all tithe, we all give. The condition of our hearts decide if a lifeless idol with deaf ears and blind eyes receives our offering, or the God who designed our hearts to worship in the first place.