But You Still Got To Live A Little, Right?
[The following is an excerpt from the upcoming FMU Success Prep Study Guide, TOP10 Marriage Tips For Smart Singles: Part 2, due out in January. However, Part 1 is already out and available here.]
Some think that being a Christian is all well and good, but you still got to live a little, right? What does this sentiment say about the perception of where life comes from?
The world says that life comes from sin. The partying lifestyle of binge drinking, uninhibited sexuality and recreational drugs – this is life. Buying things you don’t need with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like– this is life. No rules, no restrictions, no consequences – this is life. Breaking all the rules, taking all you can, faking all you have to – this is life.
The Bible, on the other hand, says sin brings death. Who’s right? Who are you going to believe?
The irrefutable fact is, sin can make you feel alive. It can give you a rush; a high; a sense of invulnerability. In the face of temptation your heart races, your head spins and your palms sweat as you wonder, “Can I get away with this?” That’s part of the fun. Indeed, the very first sin was supposed to bring death, but Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit and kept on living. They got away with it! For a little while.
And that’s the rub. The theoretical “life” that sin offers you is fleeting; it’s life in the moment, and guilt (or denial) in perpetuity. There’s a logical reason sin is this way, it has to be or no one would sin.
If you haven’t discovered quite yet, someday you will –Satan wants to destroy you. That’s his end game, so to entice you into destroying yourself he has to offer you something that offers immediate gratification, so he appeals to your pride, your greed, your lust, your selfishness; whatever carrot he needs at the end of the stick.
God has a different end game in mind. He wants to make you whole; complete; mature, but no one becomes whole through pride, no one finds completion in lust and no one matures through selfishness. That being true, God can’t “lure” you into righteousness by offering the kind of trinkets and baubles that Satan can. So the world says, “take everything you can get” and “the one who dies with the most toys wins” (to which I think, “wins what?”), but in reality when I grasp for all that “life” I get death.
On some level we’ve all experienced this. We fought so hard to get the job, or the car or the recognition or the vacation or the promotion or the affections of that special someone; and then we get it. Then what? Was our life made complete? Now, it seems completely counterintuitive to think that if we stop fighting for all those things we want that we’ll find life without those “toys,” but at some point you got to figure “Plan A” hasn’t been working. It might be time to try “Plan B.”
[Check back weekly for more excerpts of the FMU Success Prep Study Guide, TOP10 Marriage Tips For Smart Singles: Part 2, or check out Part 1 right here.]
Some think that being a Christian is all well and good, but you still got to live a little, right? What does this sentiment say about the perception of where life comes from?
The world says that life comes from sin. The partying lifestyle of binge drinking, uninhibited sexuality and recreational drugs – this is life. Buying things you don’t need with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like– this is life. No rules, no restrictions, no consequences – this is life. Breaking all the rules, taking all you can, faking all you have to – this is life.
The Bible, on the other hand, says sin brings death. Who’s right? Who are you going to believe?
The irrefutable fact is, sin can make you feel alive. It can give you a rush; a high; a sense of invulnerability. In the face of temptation your heart races, your head spins and your palms sweat as you wonder, “Can I get away with this?” That’s part of the fun. Indeed, the very first sin was supposed to bring death, but Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit and kept on living. They got away with it! For a little while.
And that’s the rub. The theoretical “life” that sin offers you is fleeting; it’s life in the moment, and guilt (or denial) in perpetuity. There’s a logical reason sin is this way, it has to be or no one would sin.
If you haven’t discovered quite yet, someday you will –Satan wants to destroy you. That’s his end game, so to entice you into destroying yourself he has to offer you something that offers immediate gratification, so he appeals to your pride, your greed, your lust, your selfishness; whatever carrot he needs at the end of the stick.
God has a different end game in mind. He wants to make you whole; complete; mature, but no one becomes whole through pride, no one finds completion in lust and no one matures through selfishness. That being true, God can’t “lure” you into righteousness by offering the kind of trinkets and baubles that Satan can. So the world says, “take everything you can get” and “the one who dies with the most toys wins” (to which I think, “wins what?”), but in reality when I grasp for all that “life” I get death.
On some level we’ve all experienced this. We fought so hard to get the job, or the car or the recognition or the vacation or the promotion or the affections of that special someone; and then we get it. Then what? Was our life made complete? Now, it seems completely counterintuitive to think that if we stop fighting for all those things we want that we’ll find life without those “toys,” but at some point you got to figure “Plan A” hasn’t been working. It might be time to try “Plan B.”
[Check back weekly for more excerpts of the FMU Success Prep Study Guide, TOP10 Marriage Tips For Smart Singles: Part 2, or check out Part 1 right here.]
posted by Future Marriage University at
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