I have this funny/sad picture in my mind - that I am a little like Gollum from Lord of the Rings (hopefully not that creepy looking - ugh, I had to close my eyes through parts!). Strange, I know, but keep reading. :) The ring is something small and as just a ring (which I realize it's not really just that in the storyline but all analogies break down somewhere...) and yet Gollum strokes it, coddles it, talks to it, etc. I just realized this morning that I am similar. There are things in my life that are very small, fairly incidental, and morally neutral. In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with them, perhaps they could even be considered a good thing. But I am one of an obsessive nature (not a shocker to some of you) and all the sudden this small, insignificant thing becomes huge in my life. I stroke it, coddle it, obsess over it, to the point where it becomes an idol. What a picture of my natural self - that I could so badly twist something like that and it ends up as something that has caused my perspectives to shift and become skewed, taking on a life of its own. How great is the grace that saves someone like me.