I seems to me that much of my growth as a Christian involves learning to recognize "idols", removing their influence and reorienting myself toward the True Shepherd. One way that I've learned to recognize idols is to see what in my life serves as a replacement for God. An idol is anything or anyone, apart from God, that I derive from a sense of security, identity and/or hope. Those are things I ought to find sourced only in God.
Let's look at identity. There are plenty of voices and forces in the world, going all the way back to my childhood, that are very willing to tell me who I am. They will lable me "unloveable", "unworthy" or "bad". These identities, however, are not the identity that God has given me. To God, I am beloved. When I permit another to lable me in any other way than beloved, then I am giving an idol a place in my life. Colin Saxton, at men's retreat a couple of weeks ago, described a discipline in which he, early in the morning, before even rising from bed, endevors to see himself as God sees him. I read of such a practice in one of Frank Laubach's books, and I've been trying to incorporate it into my life. What I tell myself, over and over, is "I am nothing, but beloved", "I am nothing, but beloved." My idea behind this chant is to remind myself that I have no other identity except the one I find from God, and that is that I am beloved. I find that I have to remind myself of this truth throughout the day, as old idolatrous tapes get activated in my head.
I share this as one begger to any other begger who is still looking for Bread, Living Bread.