The Flesh

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

         "But I’m hungry.”

          “But I need it.”

          “It’s just the way I am. I was born this way.”

          “She just makes me so mad.”

          I’ve been hearing and thinking about magical thinking recently. Researchers can’t agree on what magical thinking is, but it generally includes the idea that if X happens then Y will, or if X happens that Z won’t even when there is no true relationship between X, Y, and Z. For Christians, this magical thinking includes such things as, “If I’m a Christian then I won’t feel temptation” (or its reverse, “I feel temptation, therefore, I must not be a Christian.”) The list could go on for a long time.

          I’m just as guilty as anyone else. I don’t want to do battle with myself over what I eat. I want the Holy Spirit to make me a Stepford Wife when it comes to food, exercising no control myself, but being perfectly controlled by God. I’d like the same to be true of every aspect of my life that I don’t like. “Change my circumstances, Lord, so that I don’t want ______, or change my wants, so that my circumstances don’t matter.”

          Some others claim that because they feel, or want, that what they feel or want is natural and therefore it should be not only permitted but celebrated. Some claim that if one is “born this way” there is nothing that anyone can do but permit and celebrate. Of course, those born with alcoholic, pedophilic, or violent tendencies don’t tend to find society celebrating their inebriation, sexual activity, or violence. They are expected to find ways to restrain themselves from drunk driving, sex with children, or aggression. Of course, they and we all excuse ourselves.        

           That sort of thinking is not what today’s passage is discussing. It tells us that if we walk by the Spirit, we won’t do, not that we won’t want to do. That, of course, takes me back to a lesson I learned and need to relearn. I’m allowed to not want to do something and still do it. I’m allowed to want to do something and not do it. Often, it’s healthy to not do what we want to or to do what we don’t. It builds discipline and strength.