This Righteous Road
October 17, 2010The faith that I hold as my own has many principles to which its followers are admonished to adhere. For instance, Scripture states: “…deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” What that is interpreted to mean is that followers of Christ are to no longer pursue or gratify the lusts of the flesh (greed, sloth, gluttony, pride, etc.), but pursue that which will inevitably cause suffering to the end that more souls follow suit. The reward for such a life is citizenship within Kingdom come.
This is a very simple principle in theory. However, it is the principle that mankind finds hardest to follow, for it requires strict discipline and a conscious-ridden state-of-mind. He that chooses to follow this principle must have the strength to self-correct and the understanding that he will fail without “divine intervention”.
The question that I have been grappling with is, “Why are humans designed to find pleasure in that which is vulgar?” This does not translate into, “Why does life have to be hard?” If it is impossible to differentiate between these two inquiries, stop reading. Another way to put that question may ring proverbial to those who are dieting: “Why do things that are bad for you taste so good?” Looking beyond calorie intake, why are other things that are “inherently bad“ for you so very familiar.
I enjoy video games, but I need to exercise. I enjoy sex, but I need to practice abstinence. I enjoy alcohol, but I need to practice soberness.
The Christian rock band Kutless echoes this principle in their song ironically titled “Better for You”:
Choose a little pain and gain a life with joy; accepting pleasure now will earn a life of pain.
To gain a better perspective, listen to the entire song here: Better for You.
But if it is true that that which is better for you is that which is difficult to accept or with which to comply, then why not throw those fighting to attain that moral perfection a proverbial bone?! Scripture says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.” When? Do we really have to travel through this cold hell of an earth in this decaying vessel we call a body denying ourselves to one day be released from this planet and find ourselves at the source of eternal joy and bliss? Is that the “for good”? Is there really no guarantee that we will receive some divine signpost advertising “IT’S WORTH IT! HANG ON!”?
For those that wish to come back with, “Have faith,” keep it inside. For if it is not obvious, I shall make it so: I am having trouble accepting the “not by sight” part of that which we call The Straight and Narrow.
As a forewarning, I have been up over 24 hours as I am writing this, so if I am incoherent you know why. I am also going to loosely quote scripture so correct me if it is out of context or misconstrued.
I think that the deny yourself and follow me is so hard because it completely goes against human nature. Easily put: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” or “There is none righteous, no not one.”
To answer your question: “Why are humans designed to find pleasure in that which is vulgar?” We were not. To use a terrible pun, we kind of fell into it.
As for those struggling with attaining moral perfection (everyone) you will not attain that in this life. We are seen as perfect before God now because of the blood of Christ, but we will not be perfect until we are in a glorified body. This is probably the hardest thing about being a Christian or Christ follower. The tension between what is and what will be. I would say that the proverbial bone is Christ dying for our sins. It is through this that we are even able to entertain the idea of changing, of having a desire to become righteous.
To sum up a bit of an action to this: Don’t try to be perfect. It will not happen in this life. Instead, try to be a bit better today (how ever small it may be) than you were the day before. Try to be closer to God in both relationship and actions. There may be times where it becomes two steps forward, three steps back, but that will not always be the case. Most important is that it is not how you act that determines where you will go after this life, but your relationship with Christ. Your belief that He died in your place so your sins could be forgiven.