Self-Preservation

Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you . . . Deuteronomy 4:40

It’s natural for me to want the good life. That’s not wrong. Where I’ve gone wrong, is in where I’ve looked for it. It is unfortunately natural for me to seek satisfaction in instant gratification. If, when I indulged in instant gratification, I only found pleasure, then I’d probably have stuck with that plan. The problem, however, is that those things that provide immediate pleasure almost always come with some painful price to pay later. When I eat too many donuts, I enjoy the eating, but that fades, leaving me squishy around the middle. It’s a futile exercise to try and find lasting joy in donuts because they can’t provide me with what I truly want – satisfaction, joy, and peace. So, for my own good, I’ve had to realize I cannot live according to my appetite.

This was nowhere more evident than in my drug use. At first, when I could simply get high whenever I wanted, it seemed that I’d found the good life. If things had remained there, I’d probably still be using drugs. Eventually though, there was a terrible price to pay. As my life collapsed around me, I realized I was going to lose everything to my addiction. In my disaster, I recognized that I couldn’t enjoy drugs while enjoying a healthy faith, family, and career. So, for the sake of self-preservation, I had to do whatever it took to turn my life around. It was futility to try and find the life I wanted in drugs, so I had to abandon my way to follow God’s. It has only been in following him that I’ve found the satisfaction I always desired.

This is a good kind of selfish that Moses described in today’s passage. In it, he reminded his people that the life they wanted could be found only in walking with God. When they went their own way, following their natural inclinations, they self-destructed, making themselves miserable. Moses appealed to their sense of self-preservation, insisting that all their life’s desires and deepest needs were met only in God’s will. All other pursuits were futile.

We all desire satisfaction.  We all want to be happy. That’s not wrong. Where we go wrong is in where we try to find ourselves. So, when we realize that our pursuits can never satisfy, we must remember the lesson of Moses. Then, for the sake of our own self-preservation, we must return to God, who created us to find all our deepest needs met only in a loving relationship with him.