A Different Kind of Pleasure

By Rebecca VanDoodewaard - Posted at Gentle Reformation:

Our culture is obsessed with physical pleasure. Luxury, sex, and food are the three-fold preoccupations of the 21st century west. Vanity Fair is no longer a stop along the road to the Celestial City—it has set up shop along the entire route, from Wicket Gate to River. We have more, more easily than any other generation in history.

But we are missing out. Our material wealth, mixed with carnality, has robbed us of other kinds of pleasure. Enabled by ubiquitous technology, it is set to rob our children even faster. We are a people who, captivated by physical pleasure, are impoverished of intellectual and spiritual pleasure.

How did streaming services take over our evenings? Why is pornography such a snare? What has made obesity so prevalent, or household debt so high? Of course, the answer is that people are turning away from their Creator, without self-control, “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:4). And when we turn from the Creator, we turn from many of His gifts—things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

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