He had 420 albums. Music was his life. It permeated his dreams. It was his future and, like the rock stars he idolized, he assumed it would be his death… until he met Jesus.

No one told him to get rid of the albums. No one told him to stop playing music. But in an effort to follow Jesus’ steps, the music had to move. It was an elephant in his road.

Elephants have been stumbling into our paths since the beginning.

Noah’s elephants were mocking neighbors he refused to listen to. Moses’ elephant was a speech impediment that God pushed out of the way.

Jesus, too, faced His own road block. Satan waved fame, fortune and even food before Him, but He refused. “Get behind me!” Jesus demanded.

That is where idols belong: behind us! Anything that pulls our hearts away from loving God and loving others: any person, any substance, any magazine, any film, any hobby, any idolized thing. Perhaps we need to sell it, unplug it, flush it, throw it out, restrict ourselves from it, or gather a group of friends to lug it off our property and out of our vision.

We can’t let elephants block our path to doing what’s right. Worship belongs only to God. Elephants belong in the wild.