2024-08-16 A Meditation on Temptation

“6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Cor 10:6-13 ESV)

Wildly divergent the “going with the flow” and the “abrupt fasting”, we are creatures whose final Arrival, New Birth, Regeneration is a broken such thing, is an imperfect such thing, is a halting and taking-pause such thing. That is, we indeed in moments of better revelries, do “Hear” and “Conform” and “Bless”, while also knowing the tug of appetites and how these too can be all-encompassing.

The Christian Soldier, then, can reflect for a moment on just how much is on the line, in the community, surrounded by brethren and sistren, at large, in the world: it is almost daring, like the miracle of so few accidents whilst little denizens chauffeur their cars in lockstep with complete strangers in their own vehicles, daring how close to Damage Zone, to Adultery, to Breakage and Utter Ruin we find ourselves. For, the Fast is instructive: Man, Woman, are to train their bodies and souls by an abrupt No, even whilst training their spirits for all-encompassing Yes. Yes, this is equivalent as a posture and recreation, to anything nefarious dreamt up: No, we intended no harm, but rather Believed that it is a sickness causing such fussiness and abrupt Avoidance; go with the flow a bit more, yes, but do know the unreliability of the inner voices at a time such as these times are.

These times being, to the soldier, the “Come hither” met with the truth of a mistaken Goal: what just “feels right” being also awful and vomiting up of utter unreliability bespoke. The soldier is able, instead, to Receive All Things on some cautionary and prayerful proximity to the sin. The soldier is advised: recall your Basic Training, so useful and so potent, that you might heed the test-administrator’s guile and forward nature. We all of us need to be aware of utter spiritual war, and this in the brand and guise of ill-advised words to one another, met with Complete Mercy shown by we the soldier ourselves unto those whose appetites rumble and nibble and critique and find fault. It is precisely in Christ Himself wherein the Temptations burst forth. It is precisely our Holy Ones so cautionary and blessed, who are blindsided when forgetting what the Fast did teach: all my motives are suspect; all my soundtrack needs a break-beat; all my solo journey needs a shield, safety, the monastic vocation Holy and Observational as one utterly unable to pick itself up by the bootstraps, but still rolling along on a river of Grace.