Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. -Galatians 1:10, NIV
But the ugliness of pleasure leaves us puny humans attached to a fountain that bursts with too many waters. First, we will lead to its needless contamination. Second, it destroys our appetite for the righteousness embedded in us, one that constantly craves its spiritual milk. And third, it robs us of identity, letting us waver into the throes of seeking pleasure in the worst of companies. Be it big or small screens, scorched tempers, and the untimely destruction of our souls.
Or worse-it drives us to the unhealthiest dependence on all: humans.
Granted, we all are inherently dependent on one another; as social animals, how would we create rules and culture, engage in technological innovations, and foster civilization without our natural, God-given need to be surrounded by our peers? The problem arises when we aim to please other’s distorted flesh rather than allow the building up of our spirits; when we allow, either consciously or not, damning words that feed and sap the energy of our hearts. When this happens, we puny humans are on the long and eternally damning road of pleasure, living for the other instead of for and God.
This damning sense of pleasure exhausts the soul, saps creativity, sacrifices our needs on a vain cross and slowly destroys our faith, leading us deeper into the world of the Accuser. He will give us a drug that never satisfies, that destroys our docility and transforms it into dirty rugs, suppressing every last ounce of self-respect and worth in the eyes of the Lord. And our holiest needs are perverted into sources of guilt.
This is not the pleasure that I want to feed in my life!