Temptation

After Jesus was baptized by John, he went to the wilderness, where he was tempted…

Britney Spears has everything: great looks, talent, more money than some small countries…She has everything that we think we need. And she is miserable.

Heath Ledger just died at 28. His recipe for death? Great looks, incredible talent and lots of money. Despite having “it all” he couldn't sleep at night so he started taking drugs. And he took too much.

It strikes me that human beings are like my dog, Benjamin. Ben is a dumb chocolate lab. If I gave him a 15 pound bag of dog food, he would gorge himself to death. He would eat until he died. That dog has no idea to say when.

When it comes to issues of money, good looks, power, we don't know how to say when. We think that we will be happy if we could just get the fat off our thighs, or the wrinkles off our eyes. If only we had more money, more influence, if only people noticed us.

We look to the celebrities as if they are minor gods. We call them “the stars,” as if they are lights for us to see by. But look at them. They are miserable.

At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, before he did anything else, he went to the desert. I've been to the Sinai desert. I never knew what quiet was until I went there. There was no wind, no birds, no traffic, no roads. I felt like I was on the moon. There was total silence, like a blanket, it envelops you. All there is to hear is your own mind, your own thoughts, your temptations.

What are temptations? They are the inner urges that draw us from God. Jesus had three archetypal temptations, but most of us have more like 25. Jesus said no to his temptations. Most of us buy right into them and live according to their advice, until we realize that our lives aren't working.

What are your temptations? Since I work and I have three small boys, one of mine is this (and it's a good one)

Poor me! I work SO hard. No one works as hard as I do!

My aunt is a shopaholic. She has spoken one of her temptations aloud to me, and she still buys into it. Her temptation says

It's not fair! Why is life so unfair to me?

She verbalized this temptation on the road to her mother's. She had been evicted from her apartment because of her immense debt (caused by all her shopping). She had a friend build a wooden trailer that she stuffed full of all her knickknacks. And the trailer was so stuffed that it literally blew up on the highway. So she called my mother and she said:

It's not fair! Why is life so unfair to me?

Or the friend of mine who truly believes that all the men who love her will leave her. And so they do leave her, and she gets sucked deeper into the vortex of her own temptation.

What are your temptations? Do they tell you that you are not good enough? Do they tell you that you are stupid? Do they tell you that it's OK to drink alcohol even though your dad drank himself to death?

Jesus faced his temptations. He went to a quiet place so that he could hear them. He looked at them in the stark light of the desert, where nothing can hide. He saw how stupid they were. And he rejected them.

The best think to do with temptation is to take it out and look at it. Write it down. Speak it out loud. Tell someone about it. Bring it into the light. You will realize that it is just plain dumb. And it will begin to loose its power over you. Oh, it will return. Most temptations are repetitive, built on years of obsession. But when it comes back, if you have looked it straight in the face, you will be able to recognize it quickly. You will not be so taken in.

If only my friend could realize the stupidity of believing that all men who love her leave her. If only she could see that believing something so negative only serves to bring that very reality to pass. She could be so incredible. She could be happy. If only she could let go of this belief.

If only my aunt could realize that things and stuff can't make her truly full, she might begin to truly live.

Jesus had to recognize his own temptation before he could help anyone else. No wonder it happened at the beginning of his ministry. It was a necessary thing to do. We must get out of the muck of our self-centeredness if we are ever to truly live. We cannot really help anyone else until we figure out our own selves.

The last thing that the tempter wants is for you to realize who you truly are: a child of God, beloved, and capable of infinite possibilities.

- The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead