Hey guys, so this post could be a lot less structured than my typical posts. As I was walking to school the other day, I was praying and found myself wrestling with the concept of desire. Basically, what I’m planning on doing here, is revisiting those thoughts, beginning with the concept of desire and expanding outward from there as my thoughts lead.
edit: As I was writing, I found that this post is stemming from the idea of overcoming habitual sin. One teaching that I run up against often is to kill off bad desire. I don't think that's adequate, and this series of posts will, hopefully, explain why it's not and what I think we need to do about it. Although it's directly applicable to overcoming habitual sin, in a broader sense, it's applicable to enacting any major change in your life.
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I don't know about you, but when I think about desire, the first thing that comes to mind is the adjective "evil". As in "evil desires". As in lust, greed, wanting what isn't yours, etc. That definitely tells you something about how I've been pre-programmed (is that a word?) to think. Yes, the Bible has a lot to say about evil desires, particularly about fleeing them. But there is also much to be said about good desires. In Christian circles we talk about desiring our spouse, desiring God (brief nod to John Piper's ministry), desiring for people to come to know Christ, and so much more.
As I was walking, I found myself wrestling with this idea of desire. I have an area of sin in my life that I have been fighting for a long time, and, truth be told, it boils down to desire. I desire this thing far, far too much, and this desire, though inspired by a good desire, isn't good. As I talk with other people, read about what other people have done, and generally engage in combating this sin, I've come to realize that a misunderstanding of desire is at the heart of the reason why I cannot seem to overcome this area of sin. I'm sorry that I'm speaking so broadly, but it's a sensitive part of my life and I don't feel comfortable spilling all the details on such a public forum.
A lot of the teaching that I have heard embraces the idea of killing the root desire in order to deal with the problem. Fighting a drinking problem? Kill off the desire to be numbed by the alcohol. Under-eating disorder? Kill off the desire to be thin/to please others. Problem with lust? Kill off your sexual appetite to minimize appeal of lusting. Over-eating problem? Kill off the desire that leads you to food. And then the teaching follows up with various steps or tips to help you in killing off said desire.
“The problem is that killing the desire is hard and it often doesn't solve the problem.”
The problem is that killing the desire is hard and it often doesn't solve the problem. I know too many people who, in their effort to deal with the problem of being overweight, have gone overboard and struggle with under-eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. You might be thinking, "Well, that's just the pendulum effect. It happens. You need to seek moderation of both of those desires to fix your problem." Much easier said than done. And, honestly, I think there's a better solution.
Unfortunately, this blog is already getting really long. Rather than ramble on and on in this post, sometime in the next few days I'll put up another post. And if I need more room, I'll cut that one off and put up yet another post.
Your Turn:
What do you think about this approach to killing off desire to fix problems?
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