Temptation
According to Oscar Wilde, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." Wilde may not be the best person to seek out for advice on how to live a Christian life. He definitely had his own issues. But he also had a certain knack for seeing into the truths of the human psyche (if not the human soul). Many of us live our lives adhering, whether we know it or not, to Wilde's philosophy. We find that it is easier to ask forgiveness than to stand strong against the temptations we face each day. We give in to the temptation because we find that it is stronger than we are.
If we look at the rest of Wilde's quotation from The Picture of Dorian Gray, we see that temptation is a bit more complex: "Resist it [temptation], and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself." Wilde suggests that our soul will grow sick without the thing--whatever it is--that the temptation promises. What he is talking about, though, is that we will continue to dwell on the thing at the heart of the temptation--if we don't get it. However, there is more than one way to fulfill the perceived need which is the essence of the temptation.
We probably need to start out with an understanding of what temptation is. According to the on-line version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, temptation is "the state of being tempted," and tempt is "to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain" or "to have an urge or inclination." We do not say that we are tempted unless we mean that there is something, on some level or in some way, forbidden about the action. We might say that we were tempted to take a brownie, which would imply that we know that we should not--they are supposed to be saved for the bake sale or we are supposed to be watching our calories. If we say that we were tempted to tell off the boss, we are suggesting, by the word tempted, that we know that we should not do it. If we say that we are tempted to do good, then, we are being ironic.
However, there is more than one dimension to the word: according to the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary, temptation is also the act of tempting. We are admonished, then, not to tempt others. We must be aware of our own lives, but we must also be aware of those around us. We should strive to be sure that we are not, in any way, serving as a hindrance in someone else's attempt to live a Christian life. This requires that we be conscious of those we encounter. We have to think about what they see, what they hear, what they notice about us.
Whichever way we read the word, whether we take it to mean our own temptation or the combined idea of our temptation and our tempting of others, we have to realize that we are called to be aware. We cannot hope to avoid temptation if we do not pay attention. We are destined to fall into temptation unless we look at everything around us. According to Socrates (according to Plato), "The unexamined life is not worth living." This idea can be (and has been) discussed in many different ways and toward many different ends. For us, it means that we have to pay attention to what we do, to who we are, to where we are, to all the details of life. If we ignore the details, if we are not aware of each moment, we risk finding ourselves in the midst of temptation. We have to be vigilant.
Getting back to Oscar's advice: yielding to temptation, giving in, does not make the temptation go away. It sates it for the moment, but the temptation will still be there, and the next time we encounter it, chances are that it will be bigger and badder--especially if we (mistakenly) believe we have gotten away with something. To put an overly simplistic spin on it, temptation feeds on us: it eats at us, and the more it eats, the more it wants. When we give in to temptation, it takes a bite out of us. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was bound to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains as a punishment for giving fire to mankind, and every day an eagle would come to eat his liver--and every night, a new liver grew back to replace the eaten one. We regenerate in much the same way as temptation eats away at us. We, too, are chained; however, we do not have to accept the daily punishment. We do not have to wait for a centaur to sacrifice himself and Heracles to kill the eagle. We have Christ.
Wilde suggests that the temptation will go away only if we succumb to it, but we have already seen that this is a delusion, that the temptation does not really disappear at all, it grows stronger and more menacing. Truly, the only way to be rid of a temptation is to replace it. Temptations are urges that we face: the urge to take something, the urge to do something, the urge to say something. If we look at these urges, we see that they are supposed to lead us to something, to some kind of gain or some kind of pleasure. If we think about the ways that temptations are supposed to "fulfill" us, we see that these urges are vain attempts to fill up some kind of emptiness within us. They are supposed to fill us up, but they do not. The stuff of temptations is the junk food of the soul, empty spiritual calories--or worse, poison.
If we find ourselves in temptation, we have to realize that we can fill that emptiness much more effectively with Christ. When we face temptation, the only way to get rid of it is through Jesus Christ. But that requires that we be aware. Being a Christian is an active endeavor. Being passive allows us to be dragged along by the currents of the world around us, and we find ourselves dragged into temptations. I have a favorite old t-shirt that has the Ichthus symbol surrounded by the repeated admonition "Go against the flow," suggesting that a Christian life is similar to the fish swimming up stream, that we, as Christians, must push against the current--the life in the world--in order to achieve our objective. We are all going to be surrounded by temptations. We have to accept that Christ is our salvation--ultimately and also moment by moment.
If we look at the rest of Wilde's quotation from The Picture of Dorian Gray, we see that temptation is a bit more complex: "Resist it [temptation], and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself." Wilde suggests that our soul will grow sick without the thing--whatever it is--that the temptation promises. What he is talking about, though, is that we will continue to dwell on the thing at the heart of the temptation--if we don't get it. However, there is more than one way to fulfill the perceived need which is the essence of the temptation.
We probably need to start out with an understanding of what temptation is. According to the on-line version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, temptation is "the state of being tempted," and tempt is "to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain" or "to have an urge or inclination." We do not say that we are tempted unless we mean that there is something, on some level or in some way, forbidden about the action. We might say that we were tempted to take a brownie, which would imply that we know that we should not--they are supposed to be saved for the bake sale or we are supposed to be watching our calories. If we say that we were tempted to tell off the boss, we are suggesting, by the word tempted, that we know that we should not do it. If we say that we are tempted to do good, then, we are being ironic.
However, there is more than one dimension to the word: according to the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary, temptation is also the act of tempting. We are admonished, then, not to tempt others. We must be aware of our own lives, but we must also be aware of those around us. We should strive to be sure that we are not, in any way, serving as a hindrance in someone else's attempt to live a Christian life. This requires that we be conscious of those we encounter. We have to think about what they see, what they hear, what they notice about us.
Whichever way we read the word, whether we take it to mean our own temptation or the combined idea of our temptation and our tempting of others, we have to realize that we are called to be aware. We cannot hope to avoid temptation if we do not pay attention. We are destined to fall into temptation unless we look at everything around us. According to Socrates (according to Plato), "The unexamined life is not worth living." This idea can be (and has been) discussed in many different ways and toward many different ends. For us, it means that we have to pay attention to what we do, to who we are, to where we are, to all the details of life. If we ignore the details, if we are not aware of each moment, we risk finding ourselves in the midst of temptation. We have to be vigilant.
Getting back to Oscar's advice: yielding to temptation, giving in, does not make the temptation go away. It sates it for the moment, but the temptation will still be there, and the next time we encounter it, chances are that it will be bigger and badder--especially if we (mistakenly) believe we have gotten away with something. To put an overly simplistic spin on it, temptation feeds on us: it eats at us, and the more it eats, the more it wants. When we give in to temptation, it takes a bite out of us. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was bound to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains as a punishment for giving fire to mankind, and every day an eagle would come to eat his liver--and every night, a new liver grew back to replace the eaten one. We regenerate in much the same way as temptation eats away at us. We, too, are chained; however, we do not have to accept the daily punishment. We do not have to wait for a centaur to sacrifice himself and Heracles to kill the eagle. We have Christ.
Wilde suggests that the temptation will go away only if we succumb to it, but we have already seen that this is a delusion, that the temptation does not really disappear at all, it grows stronger and more menacing. Truly, the only way to be rid of a temptation is to replace it. Temptations are urges that we face: the urge to take something, the urge to do something, the urge to say something. If we look at these urges, we see that they are supposed to lead us to something, to some kind of gain or some kind of pleasure. If we think about the ways that temptations are supposed to "fulfill" us, we see that these urges are vain attempts to fill up some kind of emptiness within us. They are supposed to fill us up, but they do not. The stuff of temptations is the junk food of the soul, empty spiritual calories--or worse, poison.
If we find ourselves in temptation, we have to realize that we can fill that emptiness much more effectively with Christ. When we face temptation, the only way to get rid of it is through Jesus Christ. But that requires that we be aware. Being a Christian is an active endeavor. Being passive allows us to be dragged along by the currents of the world around us, and we find ourselves dragged into temptations. I have a favorite old t-shirt that has the Ichthus symbol surrounded by the repeated admonition "Go against the flow," suggesting that a Christian life is similar to the fish swimming up stream, that we, as Christians, must push against the current--the life in the world--in order to achieve our objective. We are all going to be surrounded by temptations. We have to accept that Christ is our salvation--ultimately and also moment by moment.
posted by Rodney Rhodus | 7:24 AM
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