Your Desires can be your Downfall

Be weary of the siren calls of desire.

Are you familiar with the story of Odysseus, on his way back from the Trojan war, he and his crew were tempted so badly by the sirens' enchanting calls. To answer those calls and seek them out would mean death. So he ordered his crew to plug their ears with beeswax. He however wanted to hear the siren songs, so he had his men tie him to the mast securely. He almost went insane with desire and became the only man to have heard the siren-monsters without dying.

Desires are like those sirens - evil monsters dressed in heavenly garments. In fact, as the way with these stories go, Homer's intent for it was probably to warn us from desire.

Desires can be base, carnal and fleshy - lust, greed, vain ambition; but they can also appear wholesome and well-intentioned; a hero complex, wanting to be richer to provide for your family, even evangelsitic - both types have their dangers, yet the latter is most challenging. 

Jesus Himself was tempted with Desire. When the Spirit led Jesus into the desert literally to be tempted - He was tempted to satisfy hunger, reveal His power and accomplish His ascension as King of kings, all through Desire.

He resisted successfully.

What are your desires today? Are they holy, are they reasonable, are they shameful? Think on them but realize that it matters not. Instead, examine how these Desires invade and then occupy your soul. Your entire day is spent obsessing over them or perhaps low-key thinking on them somewhere in the back of the mind at all times.

Where do these Desires come from? Better yet, are these Desires helping to fill your heart with Joy? Do they help you feel grateful for what you have now? Do they root you firmly into the present so you are able to live in wonder, today and now, at all that is in your life presently?

Desires are theives in disguise. They feed on the longing of your soul, they make you want what you don't have. Where will these wants take you?

My last question to you: what if you didn't desire what you desired? What if you let them float away, like a butterfly fluttering across the garden, let it go, let them all fly away. Observe them creeping into your life, and do not attempt to capture them, cultivate them or keep them. Why tempt yourself.

Who is the man of indomitable spirit? The man who observes his desire and refuses to heed their enchanting calls. 

Your heart desires one thing. God. He is the fulfillment of the One True Desire of all desires... all desires, are but shadows of some element of God.

God has freely given you His Spirit, His Son's blood shed for that privilege. But it is not in our nature to be grateful for what seems to have been given to us so easily and freely. (It came at the most infinite cost and difficulty beyond our ability to fathom).

Today, I want to take care of all that is in my care and purview to watch over. Grateful, steadfast, my eyes focused on the inward call of the Kingdom, the upward prize of being simply righteous (because of His gift and not my doing).

How can I honor His gift of righteousness and Spirit in me? That is what must concern us.

For some of us that might mean you comb your hair and fix your house. For others it might mean being fully present at work, rather than daydreaming of being elsewhere and complaining that it's Monday. For others it might be letting go of a crush on someone who clearly does not reciprocate your affections. Career goals, other ambitions and projects, are you grasping straws? Led on by social media posts motivating you to hustle yourself to death.

Be free of Desire. I have suffered greatly from chasing Desire, while being barely thankful for all of the Lord's goodness and loving-kindness chasing me all my life.

Learn from me, cultivate the One Desire hand-in-hand with Gratefulness for His Grace. I wonder what your life will look like when you do. I wonder what kind of man you'll be when this becomes your reality : )

"Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you." 1 John 2:15