Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for
forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
Luke 4
There are two great “temptation” stories in the Bible – the temptation
of Adam in the garden and the temptation of Jesus in the desert. In the first temptation story, man falls and Satan
wins. In the second temptation, Jesus wins and Satan falls. All other
temptations in history have to do with these two stories of temptation.
What exactly is a “temptation?” It is a personal inner struggle with a
choice that has at its base a desire to do something, especially something
wrong or unwise. It is such a part of our everyday living that every time we
say the Our Father, we pray that we will not be led into temptation.
I am reminded of
something from the Book of Sirach in the Old Testament. “Before you are life
and death, good and evil, whichever you choose shall be given you. No one does
he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin.” (Sirach 15:15-20) That is worth
repeating! "Before is life and death, good and evil, whichever we choose
will be given to us!"
A lot is made these days
of our "right to choose," but little is said about our responsibility
to choose wisely, not to mention our responsibility to accept the consequences
of our choices. Some people are like kids who go through life eating the
filling out of the Oreos and then throwing the cookies away. They want freedom
without the responsibility that goes with it! They want to choose, but they are
not necessarily willing to accept the responsibility that goes with their
choices.
You may have the right to eat French Fries and Chicken
Nuggets three times a day, but you also have the responsibility
to eat healthily. If you only exercise
your right to eat whatever you want,
without accepting your responsibility to eat well, you will sooner or later
have to accept the consequences of your choices. You have a right to skip
class, but you also have a responsibility to go to class. If you only exercise
your right to skip, you must be willing to accept the consequences of maybe
flunking out of school. If you only
exercise your right to accept a credit card, without accepting your
responsibility for paying for what you charge, you will sooner or later have to
accept the painful consequences of your choices -ruining your credit for years
to come! Our culture is filling up with
people who keep trying to beat this basic truth!
Young friends here
today, I have something to say to you. One of the benefits of being a young
adult is finally being able to enjoy the freedom to make your own choices. One of the upsides of the freedom to choose
is the ability to build your own life the way you want it through a series of
personal choices. One of the downsides of the freedom to choose is the freedom
to ruin your own life through a series of poorly-thought-out choices. The
freedom to choose, combined with the ability to choose wisely, is the ideal.
Yet there are many who cannot handle their freedom well and end up losing it.
Choosing what feels good at the moment, without the personal discipline to
choose what would actually be good over the long haul, is a recipe for
disaster. Hearing about people ruining
their lives has actually become a favorite American entertainment. Many think
it is funny to watch stupid people on trash TV tell the world how they have have ruined their lives and the lives of those who have been associated with them.
Every day people like
Judge Judy, Jerry Springer and Maury Povich make big bucks featuring people who
have ruined their lives and the lives of those around them because of the poor
choices they have made. They have the "freedom to choose" but choose
poorly. They have the "freedom to choose" but they don't have the
ability to discern what is of value.
Illegitimate children, ruined marriages, sexually transmitted diseases,
financial ruin, family disintegration, squandered opportunities for a good
education and loss of reputation are only a few of the consequences of making
choices without the ability to choose wisely.
To be able to
"discern what is of value," we must develop self-mastery. By
self-mastery, I mean we have to be able to name and then "stand up
to" our addictions, our cowardice and our laziness in order to create the
life we want to have! We must be able to "handle" ourselves and our
cravings - for a higher purpose and for our long-term good. We must be able to
continually clarify what we really want out of life, constantly focus our
energies to reach for what we want and consistently deal in truth rather than
self-deception.
People with self-mastery
approach their lives like an artist approaching the task of producing a work of
art. People with self-mastery know how to discern what is of value and use what
they have discerned to live on purpose!
The spiritual disciplines of both East and West speak often of the
practice self-mastery. I published a new book last year on this very subject . It is an autobiography mapping the courageous choices
I have deliberately made since age six and how those choices made me what I am
today – for good or for bad! It is called BETWEEN COURAGE AND COWARDICE: Choosing
to Do Hard Things for Your Own Good.
One of the sad things
about our culture, in which freedom of choice is so highly honored, is the
growing tendency to deflect responsibility for our choices after we make them. If our culture is to survive, the freedom to
choose must be combined with personal responsibility. To demand the freedom to
make our own choices and then throw the blame on others when those choices
backfire is the height of cowardice and irresponsibility - and yet it is so
popular in our culture. Freedom without responsibility is wreaking havoc all
around us.
When enough of us have the ability to discern what is of value
and when enough of us have the self-mastery
to choose what is of value, marriages will improve, families will improve,
neighborhood will improve, the economy will improve, churches will improve,
nations will improve and the world will improve. These problems can only be
fixed one person at a time. In reality, no one can save us from us, but us!
Discipline
is about choosing “delayed gratification” or “good things coming to those who
wait” or “the ability to resist the temptation of an immediate reward in favor
of a larger prize in the future.” Numerous studies have shown that the ability to
delay gratification is one of the biggest indicators of success through life –
be it your ability to manage your resources, choose the right spouse, maintain
your weight, becoming skilled at a sport or launching a career. Those who can
resist temptation in pursuit of long-term goals are blessed with an enormous
advantage over the rest of the herd. In other words, too much comfort is a bad thing
– long term. Yes, lack of self-mastery has a direct impact on the quality of
multiple areas of people’s lives. Those who cannot establish mastery over their
appetites and impulses will no doubt see many aspects of their lives quickly
unravel. The ability to subordinate a lower impulse to a higher value is the
essence of a satisfying life. Leonardo da Vinci was right when he said, “One
can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”
The
ability to discern what is of value and self-mastery in the face of severe
temptation is at the heart of Jesus’ desert experience. To do his Father’s will,
not his own, Jesus had to be able to see the difference between what “looked
good” and what was “actually good.” Once he was able to discern what the will
of his Father was, he had to have the self-mastery to follow it, no matter how
tempted he was to do otherwise!
