The Pursuit of Eden PT 2
EVERY human is driven by desire because desire is the oxygen to our lungs. A person who desires nothing is a dead one. And it is these desires that influence our every decision. Desires are prerequisites to conscious or unconscious choices. A brief reflection will prove my point— our lives, thus far, have been shaped by our desires and the consequences of our choices. Previously, we learned that introspection is needed as we pursue our desires. For it is only with honest reflection that we can determine if the procurement of our desires liberates or confines. When introspection becomes a discipline room is made to consider questions like: is it the desire itself or the fruit of the attainment of the desire that we seek? For the Christian, our centripetal desire is Eden. An eternal, thriving relationship with the living God and it is from this perspective I write.
Is it the desire itself or the fruit of the attainment of the desire that we seek?
Life is alive. We must make choices that contribute to this liveliness, or day by day, really, choice by choice we harm ourselves and inexorably bring harm to those in our proximity. Our choices add links to the chains that fetter us, or our choices can propel us farther along upon gusts of wind like the Albatross. Freedom or bondage. Howard Thurman explains this idea in his book, Deep Is The Hunger, he explains, “I recognize the place in my life of simple, elemental desires which, through the years, have aided in guaranteeing the continuation of my life. They are not bad in themselves; this I know. They are a pan of the creative process of life at work in me, a human being. When my desires get out of hand and lead me into paths that do violence to my health, my integrity, my ethical values, or when they cause me to lead another to do violence to his health, his integrity, his ethical values, then that which is an aid to life becomes a corruption. The free flowing of the spirit of the living God becomes blocked and I am temporarily cut off from His spirit. I must remember to keep my desires under the divine scrutiny, and this I can do if I let myself down into His strength.” This great mystic is highlighting that our freedom or bondage is interwoven with the freedom or bondage of other humans. If our centripetal desire is selfish, we work against God not man. For, how can a man say he loves God whom he hasn’t seen, but doesn’t love his neighbor who he sees everyday (1 John 4)? As we consider our motive, remember, one’s freedom or bondage is indicative of the quality of our desire.
If you answered those questions in part one, then you would concur with me that our desire bonds us to a way of living. Our bondage could be a day of productive work or regretful busyness or idle nothingness. If I procure this desire, who benefits and how is YHWH exalted? Why do I want this desire? What am I willing to sacrifice to get the desire? These questions cannot be answered impulsively! These questions must be considered before one takes a step to the left or right. If not, we will waste our lives with a pseudo-zeal and a suicidal hedonism. John Muir amplifies the rationale behind this when he says, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” Life must be lived responsibly. Although we are immersed in a society that glorifies individualism, we must not conform! Again reader, is your desire altruistic or selfish? If it is the latter, you will slowly disintegrate like the Earth’s ozone layer. One can desire the right thing for the wrong reason. Our ability to rationalize separates us from other creatures. Therefore, we have the ability to discern if we are living for self or with others in mind. If we ignore this truth or neglect it upon the pursuit of Eden the man created in the image of God, will be no different than the beast who thrives from instinct and is more reactionary than responsive.
The type of bondage we experience lies in the motivation for the desire.
Our bondage and freedom is never simultaneous, it is mutually exclusive. Can light and darkness dwell in the same room? As we pursue our desire, we must clothe ourselves with self-control. Idle and sporadic lives are lived with passivity. Once handicapped by indolence, discomfort, or denial (from external and internal sources) this passivity can become comfortable. Thus, the pursuit of Eden gradually slows to a halt as we believe our own lie that, “we have time.” It is at this point our desires shift, unbeknownst to us, to maintain the lifestyle of choice. Desires lead to choices that lead to consequences that create lifestyles. Allow me to illustrate.
A young man with a great gift of writing desires to write books for wealth and fame. This desire is selfish and avariciously suffocating. Howard Thurman taught us that when this is the case, corruption of one’s heart is inevitable and the ability to receive God’s guidance is lost. Where there is corruption, there is a fog of uncertainty. In other words, there is a journey with no GPS. In his selfish stupor he convinces himself that to attain this desire, he must pursue formal education. In this process, academia wrings him of his creative passion. His desire for writing is choked out like fruit among the weeds. Graduation has come and he now yearns for a break. He wants respite in anything that is not writing.
Did you notice that life used its circumstances to magnify the greedy zeal? I am not saying that discomfort on the road to your desire insinuates delusion about your desire. When doors continually close, we must consider that the sovereign God is trying to redirect us. This young man was called to write, but not for the purposes he desired. So, when life came with all its grownup problems, his selfish desire wasn’t strong enough to keep him going. He became a slave to circumstance, for this is the consequences of one with corrupt desires. Our individual desire, when interwoven with the rest of the world plays one tune. It must! We are an orchestra and God is the conductor. We are one body made up of many parts. Should the eye say to the ear that he has no need for it because of a conflict of interest? Who even determines what that interest is?
A consistent and selfish mode of heart can make one bitter towards life. People ruin their lives by their foolishness and then are angry at the Lord (Pro. 19:3). To be alive, yet not living and enjoying the freedom of life is a slow agonizing death like solitary confinement. A midlife crisis subtly lurks in the high grass. It will only attack after confusion, doubt, and anxiety exasperate the wanderer. Their bondage begets a greater bondage, and they become blindly frustrated at this new awareness. At this point, most people attach all sorts of definitions to themselves in order to placate their reality; some indulge in religion or commit suicide. Why? Simply, they are bound to a life of bondage. They are no longer living life, they are existing. Their lives are filled with monotonous routine. If animals could talk, we would see that a wild and a domesticated lion have two different philosophies on life. Reader, it is imperative that you reflect upon your life and your desires. The next half of your life can drastically shift if you take my humble advice. Go! Your liberation and God’s glory and the betterment of humanity is at stake!
“To [live life] is to alert oneself for the high adventure in living which God has vouchsafed for the children of men.”
