The Potential of Desire

"There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels."
- a quote from C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, Harper Collins edition 2001, page 106

When C.S. Lewis penned this statement, he sandwiched it between two different illustrations. One of a man controlled by lust, symbolized by a lizard on the man's shoulder, whispering in his ear. When the man finally gave this desire over to the Lord and allowed the lizard to be killed, he was reborn as a new man, a stronger, fresher spirit; and the lizard was reborn as a stallion, no longer controlling him, but rather carrying him.

The other illustration was that of a mother wanting to enter heaven only to be with her child. The love of a mother for her child, in this poor woman's case, had grown so distorted as to eclipse her love for anyone else - including God. And the saddest part was that she couldn't let go of that twisted maternal love.

When comparing both of these illustrations, this question is posed: "...if the risen body even of appetite is as grand a horse...what would the risen body of maternal love or friendship be?"

There is a common thought, not modern yet many times presented and posed as such, that if a desire or impulse is natural, it is therefore okay and right to indulge it without inhibitions. But if steel were never hammered and shaped it would never become a beautiful sword. And while God designed us with natural impulses and desires, they were never intended to be ships without rudders.

One has only to look to the Proverbs to see a plethora of examples of this, specifically in regards to sexual desire. As God revealed it to the writers of this wisdom literature, the natural sexual desire was to be limited and focused, and therein would it bloom and blossom into it's intended splendor.

The challenge is to look at our desires, to see them as God sees them. To enable them to reach their full potential. And this means death. The desires must die at the feet of God, we must give them up to him, because no matter what they may be, they are animals we cannot control and focus on our own.