“Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I” (Part 1)

One of my spiritual heroes from the past is Jerome Savonarola. He was a great preacher in Italy in the 15th century…actually a Catholic priest who was excommunicated and hanged for preaching the gospel in language that everyone could understand and for offending the Pope. His life story is fascinating, but I want to tell you about a particular experience he had.

One day he saw an elderly woman bowing before a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus. On the following day, he noticed the same woman again on her knees before the statue. So with great interest, Savonarola observed that day after day, she came and worshipped before the statue. He whispered to one of his fellow priests, “Look at how she reverences the Virgin Mother.”

But the priest said, “Don’t be deceived by what you see. Many years ago an artist was commissioned to create [that] statue....As he sought a young woman to pose as the model for his sculpture, he found one who seemed to be the perfect subject. She was young and lovely, and had a mystical quality in her face. The image of that young woman inspired his statue of Mary. The woman who now worships the statue is the same one who served as its model years ago. Shortly after the statue was put in place, she began to visit it and continued to worship there religiously ever since.”

That woman wasn’t giving homage to Mary…she was worshipping herself! While that true story might seem a bit extreme, worshipping self is not that uncommon. In fact many are guilty of “Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I.”

Worshipping ourselves—we could call that selfishness—is one of the most serious sins that a person commits. It’s perhaps the most dangerous idolization of all! Because when we place ourselves at the center of the universe…when life is all about us…we become self-serving…and self-sufficient…and self-satisfied! Self is upon the throne of our lives…and may I remind you that there is a throne in each of our hearts? God put it there, because He designed us to be worshippers. But nothing and nobody belongs on that throne except Him! Yet when we give self access to that throne, that’s idolatry…pure and simple.