Tuesday Temptations

What tempts you these days?

Chocolate Mocha Latte?
Food, more than you need?
Sleep?
Laziness, avoiding the cold and exercise?
Hibernating?

Sometimes the things that tempt us are a hint at what we ought to do for ourselves- perhaps slowing down, being less busy.

Often though the things that tempt us are a diversion from what makes us feel unhappy or unfulfilled. Our temptations fill a void in us with food, or drink. Or we make our lives busy-busy because the busier we are the more important we feel. The more we do the more we justify our lives. The more we do the more we think our lives have meaning. But this may not be the case.

We can fill our lives with all sorts of things and still be dissatisfied, discontent.

Jung says that we all are born with an innate desire for God. This desire for God is like a hole in our beings. When we are not attune to God we experience this hole as an emptiness, a void, which we try to fill with things. We try to fill it with food, drink, or purchases. But nothing works, really, because the hole seeks something else, God. When we connect ourselves to God and develop a faith life and a community of faith, then the void lessens, the emptiness decreases. Over time we feel more content. Our temptations lessen, our focus increases, our lives are richer.