Restless Ones

Recently I have been re-listening to a lot of old episodes of the This American Life podcast. One of those episodes was one with stories themed around the Ten Commandments. In the story based on the commandment “thou shall not commit adultery” I was presented with this idea: it may be possible to obey too much. In other words, often we can lead ourselves astray by adhering to the straight and narrow too strictly. In this story author David Dickerson talks about his experience during college trying to control his lustful thoughts. It became an obsession for him and the more he struggled to repress his thoughts the stronger they became. His efforts to rid himself of sexual thoughts he ended up becoming obsessed with sex and he felt like a monster because of it. Eventually he realized that his agonizing over maintaining a righteous mind served to do nothing but distract him from every other aspect of his spiritual journey. The result of this obsession is that we do not bend to temptation but instead strain ourselves until we crack completely.

This idea, I believe, applies to much more than sexual temptation. It can apply to any kind of moral transgression we could be tempted with. Of course we shouldn’t give into temptation whenever it comes (that would be ridiculous) along but the moment we begin to obsess over the temptation we have lost to it. Bending will become cracking and we will find ourselves worse off than ever before.

We are all wretched sinners but we are saved by the grace of God nonetheless.

Thoughts?

“Hence, in all true Christian asceticism, that respects for the thing rejected which, I think, we never find in pagan asceticism. Marriage is good, though not for me; wine is good, though I must not drink; feasts are good, though today we fast.”

- C.S. Lewis in “Some Thoughts”

I think that I would like to throw out one more post and then put a lid on this whole discussion of the use of Christian profanity. I am finding that the general consensus has been that its use, indeed, has its place. Used properly it can be an effective and powerful language tool and can even be considered good. At the same time, though, its usage must be carefully measured out lest it lose its force or be used for ill.

When you think about it, this is really the way that Christianity looks at much of what we find in creation. Many things are naturally good when treated properly (sex, alcohol, food, etc.) but can be turned to evil when abused. This is what separates Christian asceticism from the asceticism of other beliefs as well as from the puritanical abolition that is often are mistaken for Christian asceticism. Self control is a fruit of the spirit and is key, not only to the Christian life, but to a healthy life in general. Lewis said it well in the aforementioned essay:

“Because we love something else more than this world we love even this world better than those who know no other.”

Previous posts on this subject here.

You know, it is things like this that give me a bit of hope for the future of this world.

This is from Rocketboom (www.rocketboom.com) which is one of the best webcasts I have found in years.