Sunday, July 08, 2007

Seduction and Wealth

In the post I just finished, "More About Men," I attempted to make a point about the counterfeits of the enemy and used Victoria's Secret and Donald Trump to illustrate. Let me clarify what I'm saying.

As we look around this world in which we live for meaning and direction we would all do well to remember the Author and Creator of everything as well as His non-creative, deceiving enemy. We would do well to understand that the enemy cannot build, create, design, invent, solve or innovate.

The enemy did not create the beauty, nor the attraction men and women have towards it, that is blasted on our screen in Victoria's Secret commercials. God did. Am I saying that the commercials are okay? No. That beauty, displayed that way, is NOT meant to be viewed by everyone and used to sell stuff. In addition, the commercials put doubts into the minds of both men and women about measuring up to impossible standards.

But would I be wrong to suggest that the power portrayed in those commercials pails in comparison to the power Eve had on Adam when she was first created? Was that power good or bad? What was it for? What does this mean for Godly relationships between men and women?

Same thing with Donald Trump. There's no doubt that he's a driven man (and not by money, by the way), but can you really say the desire to succeed at something grand is unGodly when Adam and Eve were told to explore and subdue the world? What does this mean for Godly men and women today? What does God want us to do, how high should we be aiming for?

I still don't feel like I'm nailing my point, but what I'm trying to say is that there are reasons why we Christians seem to want the same things "the world" wants. Because they aren't "the world's", they're God's. And seeing them in this way - cutting through the deception of a counterfitting and non-creative enemy - gives us motivation and reason to live powerfully and make a difference.

Forgive me if I'm off a bit in expressing my thoughts, I'll keep working at it until it's all out.

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