“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – C.S. Lewis
If you were the devil – if your one goal and ambition was to destroy and distract the cherished creation of your enemy – would you do anything differently than what we see taking place in the world right now?
The chasing of small pleasures, the desires of the flesh, the promotion of self over Truth?
In Romans 7:19-20, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”
Anyone with a teenager might resonate with this example, but we provide our preteen son a list of weekly chores. They are a complete burden and hindrance to the activities he would rather be doing. But he does them nonetheless, complete with grumbling and idling, and performs the bare minimum effort necessary to complete the task.
We often have to correct and remind him, but we try to show grace; I also remember hurrying through my weekly chores as a teenager in an effort to move on to more important things, like reading through beauty magazines while listening to the latest CD release of the 90s. But when I became an adult and rented my own place, my view towards chores evolved. I took my time and did my best work; I wanted my space to shine.
A natural evolution of life is for immature teenagers to develop into dependable adults. While we are to retain a childlike faith in regard to the wonders of our Creator, 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 reminds us that we are expected to mature in our walk: “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly.”
If I want my child to fail at any aspect of life – school, sports, chores – I need only to distract him. Adolescents are easily distracted, and these diversions are abundant in the world around us.
Likewise, to lead a son or daughter of God astray, the devil need only place a small obstruction in our path. These distractions keep us focused on the mire when we were meant for the throne.
As C.S. Lewis declared, humans are easily interrupted by simple, meaningless things… the ping of our cell phone, a questionable word spoken by a friend, a visual image on television or in a magazine, a biased news story, the envy that takes root when our neighbor buys a new car, the extra pounds around our waist that settle as we age.
“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:16-17). For the Lord who made us co-heirs with Christ, I cannot imagine it was His desire for us to be so pleased with the trivial and foolish things of this world.
We were created for much higher things, much loftier things, much deeper things.
Colossians 3:1-2 tells believers, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
As we move forward on our spiritual walk with Christ, may we remember who we are. We are no longer children making mudpies in a slum, but children looking forward to a holiday at sea. A divine and perfect God, desiring to share the splendors of His creation with His very own children.
The weight of glory is heavy indeed, but it is what we were created for.