Matthew Costner

Ok, I’m back from my fun weekend at Horton Haven Christian Camp in Lewisburg, Tennessee. If you have never been to Lewisburg, let me just tell you, there is absolutely nothing there! So needless to say, during our spare time there wasn’t much to do. Therefore, my friend Jack and I went for a ride to his lake house during our long Saturday afternoon break, to talk about how the camp was going so far. While on the trip I began thinking about my latest blog and all the childhood games I used to play. One of the games that crossed my mind was hungry hungry hippo.
I used to love to play that game. I didn’t own it, but my cousin did! I can’t even stop smiling and laughing now thinking about playing that game with her when I was little. How you played this masterpiece of a game was to pour marbles in the middle of about four plastic hippos and you would press this little lever on your side of the square game, and it would make the head of the hippo stretch out and grab a marble. The object of the game was to get as many marbles as you could until all the marbles ran out and whoever had the most would win the game.
Needless to say, it seems like many people in life tend to take this approach to living life – trying to get as many marbles (in the case of life this would mean material goods) as they can before life is over. I don’t think for one minute that having fun toys like nice cars, houses, etc. are bad, but when the pursuit of these things drives how we live each day and when these fun toys define who we are, then there is a problem.
Ok…something you need to know about me. Before I became a preacher, I was an accountant, and when I was an accountant materialism was all I thought about. I was engulfed with the thought that success was defined by materialism, and then that success was what defined me! Well needless to say, as much money (and it really wasn’t that much) as I was making as an accountant, I was miserable. I quickly realized that although I liked having money, I was going to have to find something else to define me rather than my material success. Ashamedly, this is something I still wrestle with. I tend to find my worth and value in my successes, or what I have to show for my life. Not having a job, I can say that my play toys are pretty much non-existent – I have a computer, a room in Nashville at a friend’s house, and a truck.
While at the camp this past weekend, we talked about breaking free of things in our life, and needless to say, this was one of the very things I thought of. I also realized something else about myself, and for some reason it never really registered with me before (although a few close friends had mentioned it to me). I had made materialism my idol, and then with materialism I had let pride sneak in and become another idol. So basically I have been living with several gods in my life: The Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit), materialism, and myself or pride.
There is no wonder I have had so much frustration and dissention in my life recently. I have become enslaved by myself and materialism (or lack there of), and those two have overpowered and smothered my love and worship of Christ. So, this weekend and today, I have died, and am going to try and continue dying to these other gods as my years on this sometimes fun earth continue. I am tearing these golden calves down because I don’t want them anymore! I want Christ and Christ alone!
The reality is God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). I really believe God is kind of an “all or nothing” kind of God. If I won’t pursue Him, He will back away. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t always there but it does mean that He will just stand back and let me do what I want to do and how I want to do it. This has gotten me nowhere, and by nowhere I mean frustration, anger, heartache, etc.! In essence, when I am not focused on Christ, I begin to tangle myself up in the chains of the evil one. However, If I push these other gods out of my life, the Spirit of the Lord will take over, and “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
It’s amazing how free I have felt as I have began seriously looking at my life and sought to break the chains and eliminate those things that control me. It’s also amazing at how much my self-esteem and my feeling of self-worth has risen since I have surrendered those things that I have let lord over me. I seriously believe that many of life’s hardships come from our lack of surrendering the lords of our lives and letting Christ break the chains of our strongholds. Like anyone bound by chains, the more there is struggle, the more there is frustration, and then eventually deep cuts and bruises from trying to get those nasty chains off. In Beth Moore’s book, Praying God’s Word she writes, “Why does God allow us to spend so much of life in the heat of battle? Because He never meant for us to sip His Spirit like a proper cup of tea. He meant for us to hold our sweating heads over the fountain and lap up His life with unquenchable thirst.”
I am reminded here of The Messages interpretation of Matthew 11:28-30. It says, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
So maybe Hungry Hungry Hippo doesn’t have to have such a negative example placed with it if we can liken it to our pursuit of the Holy Spirit. If Christ truly sets us free, then we should constantly be doing all we can to gather as much Holy Spirit as we can. When we grab at the Holy Spirit like the we try to make the hippos in the game do to those marbles, we will shout with singer/songwriter Chris Tomlin, “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free, My God, my Savior has ransomed me, And like a flood His mercy reigns, Unending love, Amazing Grace.”