September 22, 2010
Satisfaction
I don’t ever remember sitting down to dinner thinking, when I get done eating I want to be stuffed and miserable. And yet how often do I leave the table saying, ‘I can’t eat another bite. I don’t even have room for dessert. I’m stuffed.’ When Jesus fed the 5,000 and 4,000 Scripture says, “They all ate and were satisfied…” I’m beginning to wonder if the problem for many of us is that we eat to be full rather than eating to be satisfied.
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Gail;
-----Eating to be full is a reaction to passion. Eating to be satisfied is a reaction to reason. Passion is interested in emotional fullness; reason is interested in objective fulfillment. They each rise from separate mental functions, perceive circumstances differently, drive towards goals for different purposes, and arise in the body from opposite ends of the nervous system. Yet both were created by God for the use of each in its appropriate situation.
-----Even though God said, “Come now, let us reason together,” (Is 1:18) and, “...knowledge will be pleasant to your soul,” He also said, “...ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full,” (John 16:23) and, “...the meek shall possess the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.” (Psa 37:11) Reason operates through comparison and categorization to seek measures; passion seeks only to receive or give, often regardless of measure. Reason attends to the interrelationships of circumstances; passion attends to the personal meaning of circumstances. Reason seeks to appropriately fit circumstances together for achieving a relationship with reality; passion seeks to fit circumstances into favored patterns for achieving personal fulfillment. Reason arises above the brain stem and is registered through the emotions as a call to determined action; passion arises below the brain stem and is registered through the emotions as a call for demanded action. Passion in itself is not bad. Passion by itself is bad. Reason’s resignation to passion’s demand multiplies the risk of hazard. Reason must compare, categorize, and measure passion’s demand as just another circumstance amongst all the rest.
-----Simply stated, this is self-control. Some things are to be done passionately. We are to love one another passionately, celebrate passionately, and feast heartily when the table is set for celebration rather than for mere nourishment. But reason will always seek to sort what calls for passion from what calls for dispassion, or for moderation. Add the involvement of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, and it most often will get it more right than wrong so we can be satisfied through having been reasonable.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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