Doing Away With what Does not Profit

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

~C.S. Lewis

Jeremiah 2:8 (NASB)
The priests did not say, "Where is the Lord?"
And those who handle the law did not know Me;
The rulers also transgressed against Me,
And the prophets prophesied by Baal
And walked after things that did not profit.

Yes, we are far too easily pleased. Tonight I came home to a vacant main floor and proceeded downstairs. Without even thinking, I began glaring at the Netflix showing that was going on. This is the experience of a person who resolved only three days ago to give up TV, and tonight I watched it without a second thought.

The truth that we are far too easily pleased is alarming. But what adds to this even more is that we create habits for filling our lesser pleasures, and it becomes even more difficult to pursue Christ - the all-satisfying Treasure - above all.

Do not fool around with drink and sex and ambition - those are mud pies. Our earthly bodies will only last so long in their present state. We must learn to live as dying men because living is Christ and dying is gain (Php. 1:21). Give up fooling around, and look to Christ, for He is the highest pleasure.