Here’s your “How To Be On the Cutting Edge of Coolness” tip for the day: get into natural stuff. It seems that if you want to earn any cool points in today’s world you need to be embracing a natural, organic lifestyle. You must buy naturally grown plants, drink shade-grown organic coffee, wear all-natural cotton garments, and maintain a natural diet that includes at least 43 servings of fruits, vegetables, and humus every day. You’re not going to get a lot of takers when you host a ‘processed’ dinner party, with lots of Velveeta cheese, Spam, and Coca-Cola on the menu.
Now, lest I come across as cynical, I genuinely do appreciate natural things whenever possible. I do get concerned however, when people start talking about doing what ‘feels’ natural. Why? Because many of our natural desires are nothing more than sinful desires. Our nature is sinful, and so to do what feels natural is often sinful.
Isn’t it true that sin feels so natural at times? Whenever something doesn’t go our way, anger is the natural response. When something sexually inappropriate flickers onto the television screen, lust is the natural, sinful response. And it’s so easy to justify our sin because it feels so right. But what feels so right, isn’t. What’s natural isn’t what’s truly good, beautiful, and satisfying. What will truly satisfy my thirsty soul is not indulging in the natural, but God himself.
Psalm 84:11 captures all this beautifully when it says:
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
What sweet words those are! Our fulfillment doesn’t come from satisfying our natural, sinful desires. In fact, the complete opposite is true. Joy, life, and satisfaction are found in pursuing Christ and walking in righteousness. Our sinful flesh lies to us, telling us that we need to give in to our natural desires. By God’s grace, we must fight this lie with God’s promise of true pleasure. He won’t withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly.
By God’s grace, don’t be natural today. Rather, let’s pursue what will truly satisfy our hearts: the living God.
+photo by M McM
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s definitely a mistake to be lead by our feelings, just as it’s a mistake to be lead by our sight like your father wrote in his post, “Where Are Your Eyes?” As New Testamenters, we should be lead by the Holy Spirit.
A minor correction: in the third paragraph, you wrote, “What’s natural isn’t what truly good, beautiful, and satisfying.” I think you meant, “What’s natural isn’t what’s truly good…”
Marshall
Thanks Marshall for catching that. Fixed it.
well. you know my take on things.
and i know you love hummus.
We are coming to appreciate a more natural approach to our eating habits…well, some of our eating habits. It's not always received with thanksgiving and the delivery of such info often leaves much to be desired, but we're getting there. Diet Mt. Dew will never be natural but I thank the Lord for it anyway.
You're absolutely right – our nature is sinful and it's desires, in and of themselves, are sinful and will always pull us away from the Lord. Psalm 84:11 is one of my favorites and one that is often quoted around here.
Thanks for the encouragement, Stephen! Excellent points to meditate on!