Misplaced Passions
I am the way, the truth and the life. John 14:6
God’s man is called to invest his passions in the service of life, not invest his life in the service of his passions. God knows that we have energy to devote to something, and He designed that energy to be put toward knowing and loving Him — in worship. Unfortunately, billions of men are being deceived, fruitlessly worshiping the wrong thing and paying the price. All of us can relate and connect to this disillusionment. The objects we worship hijack our souls, morph our characters, and transform our conduct. The truth of this is masterfully captured by famed author and alcoholic Raymond Chandler in the Long Goodbye. He says about his object of worship, “Alcohol is like love: The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that, you just take the girl’s clothes off.”
Sadly millions of Christian men are experiencing a similar letdown with God. We start off in awe and “magic” as salvation invades our soul. But slowly our spiritual high is tempered by some of the realities of spiritual growth that are going to have to be worked out rather than “magically” resolved. We experience what addicts would call a “buzz kill” and come off our high. We are disillusioned. Slowly but surely our walk with God becomes familiar and routine.
As men of God, we are destined to spiritual failure if we are sucked into thought that is not rational. The North Star for instance is an absolute. The navigator is, forgive my cruel word, stupid if he takes his directions from someone who says, the North Star isn’t that big of a deal, chart your own course on anything you want. Now really, have you not wanted to walk away from someone who starts to argue against something that you know to be true, like a red light means stop and a green light means go? Do you get my point?
Father, you are truth. Help me not to be stupid.