This week, in preparation for the coming of our daughter next month, my wife and I have moved from our small flat to a more spacious abode. While cleaning, Incubus’ 2009 album Monuments and Melodies was playing on my laptop. Although my ears are hearing the music, my hands were the ones more connected to my brain. But for some reason, when the song “Dig” came up, it was my nervous and olfactory systems that were working together. Then suddenly, multiple active synapses started to rattle my brain. This meant only one thing: a time of theological musing.
Incubus’ song “Dig” makes the case that everyone has weaknesses, and that we all live trying to overcome them. We all have personal thorns in the flesh. It is conventional, even in Christian sermons, that temptations come from our weak spots, or that we are tempted when and where we are vulnerable. This is of course, true. Our weaknesses, whatever they are, are backdoors that are almost always open for the tempter to siege our souls. In fact, the tempter seem to be very knowledgeable of the particular moments of our vulnerabilities, and makes use of these very effectively. The question is: Should we be excused when we fall from temptations perfectly timed and executed by our tempter? The thing is, being repeatedly tempted through the same weakness and being repeatedly overcome by the same temptations cannot be possibly be a good Christian experience. The saying “the first mistake is a mistake; the second is foolishness” should sound like cymbals bashed near our earlobes. We cannot ordain our weaknesses by thinking that sinning caused by them should be excused, or that others should be “more understanding” about it. Weaknesses are not meant to be permanent. In fact, they are meant to be overcome, even if it is little by little.
But our weaknesses are not the only avenues of temptations. In fact, ironically, our strengths can be a mighty source of temptation. Consider the dialogue below from the film Luther (2003):
Cardinal Cajetan: “What is it that you seek, Aleander?”
Aleander: “To serve God – to serve him with all my heart.”
Cardinal Cajetan: “And that is how you will be tempted.”
Interesting, is it not? If we think about it, especially for the Christian, it is actually the temptations springing from our strengths that we are more vulnerable to. Furthermore, it is these temptations that we are blind to and are mostly unaware of. For instance, a brilliant preacher can easily be tempted to have superiority complex. A Christian praying at 5:00AM everyday can easily be tempted to have spiritual pride. The moral Christian can easily be tempted to be judgmental of others. And truthfully, the tempted one in these scenarios needs another person to make them aware of their predicament. This is why temptations from our strengths are a lot more seriously problematic than temptations from weaknesses. And because everyone has strengths – just as everyone has weaknesses – we can confidently conclude that we all face temptations that we may not be even aware of! Indeed, we may have fallen many times from stealth temptations. If we add our God-given and neutral human desires (like hunger, sexual desire, love for companionship, etc.) that can be used against us, the number of stealth temptations we face everyday can be enormous. Perhaps we have been tempted via our very own God-given and God-enabled triumphs. Perhaps we thought that the victory we had over one thing marks the end of all temptations for the whole day. If so, we are dead wrong.
Temptations are not as simple as they sound. We can never underestimate (or overestimate) our tempter. It is not as if we have a specific number of temptations per day allocated for us. In fact, the very moment of victory over one temptation can be the very beginning of another. The film The Devil’s Advocate (1997), although not a Christian film, hits the mark about temptations. In the film, Keanu Reeves plays the part of a lawyer who is tempted by Satan, played by Al Pacino. Near the climax, the film portrays Reeves’ victory over Satan’s temptation for easy access to power and glory, but the movie ends with Satan turning Reeves’ victory over him (Satan) as the very foundation of his next temptation. So the movie has not actually ended; it has just begun. The viewer is left with the impression that the cycle continues. This is the truth about temptations. They are not like coconut trees whose lives end after being cut. Instead, they are like shrubs. Cut a thorny stem and a shoot sooner or later comes out right where it was cut.
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