Walking Through a City of Idols

Acts 17:16 · Fresh Start: When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn

“While Paul waited for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to find that the city was flooded with idols.” — Acts 17:16 (CEB)

Paul didn’t arrive in Athens looking for a fight. He was waiting for his friends. But while he waited, he walked. And what he saw as he moved through the city unsettled him: idol after idol after idol. On every street corner, in every public square, at every turn. Athens was a city of profound beauty and intellectual achievement, and it was also a city where something claimed your devotion on every block.

There’s something about walking through a place, rather than reading about it, that makes you see clearly. When you actually move through your day with your eyes open, you start to notice what’s competing for your attention. The screens, the comparisons, the quiet assumptions about what makes a life successful. None of them announce themselves as idols. They just line the streets of your ordinary routine, waiting for you to bow without thinking.

Paul’s distress wasn’t anger at the Athenians. It was grief that so many searching, brilliant people were giving their devotion to things that couldn’t love them back. The same grief can wake us up, if we’re willing to walk through our own city with open eyes.

God who walks with us through every landscape, give us Paul’s clarity to see what we’ve stopped noticing. Christ, you are the one thing worth our full devotion. Holy Spirit, open our eyes as we move through this day. Amen.