The Weight of Temptation

I shop-lifted this expression "the weight of temptation" from a recent sermon at our church because I felt it captured the human condition perfectly. We live in a fallen world. By that I mean a world created by God, but corrupted by sin. While there is much good in this world, and many good people, it is our lot to bear a burden of temptation. Without a doubt, we do plenty of "right" things. However, the temptation of "wrong things," of poor choices, remains ever at hand. For some folks each day can be a real battle to stay in the center of the narrow path of faithful obedience. This is especially true because we no longer have to go looking for temptation. The wonders of various modern media have enabled sin to come looking for us. First of all, there are many kinds of temptation, but I’ll just use sexual temptation because of it’s ubiquitous presence in our daily lives. Television and printed media flood our homes, billboards and radio advertising follow us to work and our email "in" boxes are jammed with elicit spam on a daily basis. Even those of us who make a concerted effort to dodge the influence of all this inappropriate material cannot avoid a least coming into contact with it. You have to see an image in order to know you should look away. You have to read the subject line of an email to know that you shouldn’t. That’s just how things work. Even if most temptations burn up like comets entering the atmosphere of our conscious thought, some of them will still sneak through and end up leaving craters in the surface of our lives. Unless one gives in entirely, there is always a tension on the peripheral of our interaction with the world around us because one who would be pure must remain constantly on his guard. That is the weight of temptation, and to circumvent its effect upon our daily lives requires a proactive approach to living. Those who would be honorable husbands and fathers, leaders and role models, have to go farther than just doing the right thing. We have to completely avoid the wrong thing. Like a ship traveling through reef-strewn waters, we must give any obstacle a wide berth lest an unforseen wind or current should cause us to drift dangerously close to those unforgiving hazzards. Temptation exists. That is a fact in this modern world, just as it was from the onset of recorded human existence. We have the choice, however, of controlling it instead of letting it control us. Become a student of your own heart and your own life so that you learn to admit your weaknesses and discover how best to protect yourself from them. Don’t let the weight of temptation get the best of any area of your one and only life. Fight the good fight and live a life that will bring honor not only to you, but to your loved ones and your God. Onward.

The Weight of Temptation
It’s always there in the background
The darkness which follows me
Like storm clouds on the horizon
It pursues me patiently
Biding time, it lies in wait
For moments of weakness and pride
Those demons of temptation
Who whisper to me, deep inside
Sometimes the weight of temptation
Threatens to crush my feeble heart
Choking the very breath from me
As its claws seek to tear me apart
The evil one who pursues me
Is a master of disguise
Who lures me, unsuspectingly
To the brink of compromise
So I must be ever wary
My vigilance cannot wane
Lest temptation should come knocking
With the pleasure that leads to pain
Lord, gird my heart with the armor
Of Your word and shield my life
That I may be true to You, oh God
True as well to my children and wife
By Frank Carpenter ©