In
the positions of leadership you have held (at home, work, school, in
the community or church), how have you felt the temptation to pursue
your own goals regardless of the effects it could have on others?
(Serendipity Bible 10th
Anniversary Edition, page 1040).
The
question here is “how”, thankfully not “what”. I don't feel
inclined to parade the “what” of my temptations, only to testify
to their strength and the workings of temptation on the mind. When I
am tempted, it strongly affects me. I am highly motivated to assume
the act and clothe myself in an attitude that dresses it up in
finery. Without doubt, the drive to rationalize away the wrongness
of an act or attitude has immense power. Then it becomes clear that
there are no limits to what rationalization can justify.
Rationalization is a treacherous form of escapism in which we are
tempted to focus on selfish gratification and hide from our
consciousness the fact that we are hurting others—the latter aspect
is an inevitable part of the deal as, of course, is the additional
factor that hurt is also of necessity self-inflicted for it can never
be in our interest to engage in escapism however dressed in deceptive
phantasmagorical delights that shield us from reality. I once heard
that clothes hide a multitude of sins. It is deeply ingrained in us
to hide from reality and take the “cover story” as truth. Thus,
it becomes our duty in times of temptation to look at facts head
on—not yielding to a clouded mind, but righteously—striving for
Godly vision—seeing truthfully past all human delusion to the
flotsam and jetsam that befoul and pain our world due to
self-indulgent escapism and the desire for power.
That
Old Black Magic
