Doing What We Want
September 20, 2009
We all like to do what we want to do. And, by and large, we’ll find some way to do just that. At the most extreme is the worldly motto, “If it feels good, do it.” Dressed up in respectability we call it “self-actualization”, a term originally promoted by psychologist Abraham H. Maslow. Beyond ultimate boredom in simply pursuing self—The Preacher of Ecclesiastes was frustrated by this himself—short term self-satisfaction, which inevitably leads to sin, has its own dire consequences: broken relationships, addiction, disease, bankruptcy.
Paul wrote to the Galatians that there was another course, that we could find real purpose, but that purpose would not be found by focusing on oneself. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) This act of putting the man of sin to death is symbolized by the action of baptism when we receive forgiveness of past sins. This is meant to be a clean break with our life of self (Romans 6).
Now our focus is to be different. Peter tells us that we are now “to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” (1 Peter 4:2) At first our worldly self struggles against allowing this dominance by Christ, by the will of God. But maturing in Christ is to shape us so that our own self is put aside bit by bit. God’s will ultimately becomes our own.
But this process is not easy. Many of us are quick to recognize the things of overt worldliness and gross immorality. But we still resist letting Christ take over our lives in those “little” things. On what do we spend our money? What do we insist on wearing? How easy is it to put attending services with the saints below kids activities or that fun weekend trip?
G.K. Chesterton well summarized this reality in his book Heretics, “…whereas it had been supposed that the fullest possible enjoyment is to be found by extending our ego to infinity, the truth is that the fullest possible enjoyment is to be found by reducing our ego to zero.” Where do we find our enjoyment?
Alan Cornett