There are so many enjoyable things to do in this world. One example is the cruise that I just went on with my family. There were shows, food, music, and all sorts of indoor and outdoor activities. We also had the chance to just relax and be lazy. It’s good to keep ourselves entertained and indulge in nice things occasionally, but doing it too often can harm our souls.
We are basically living out a love story between us and God and we should constantly be trying to improve that relationship with Him. Many of the things that are entertaining in life, can distract us from God and prevent our relationship with Him from growing. Smartphones, for instance, are notorious for keeping us distracted. The whole world is at our fingertips with a smartphone and we can easily spend hours on it a day. As soon as a conversation dries up or there is nothing to do, the phone comes out and off we go on the World Wide Web. We seem to need to be constant stimulation, and it’s uncomfortable to just sit in silence and reflect.
While our physical bodies crave food, entertainment, and stimulation, our souls crave God. Sometimes we need to sacrifice some worldly pleasures in order to give our souls room to grow and be happy. It’s easy to say we want to give something up, but it’s much harder to actually follow through. When we have trained our bodies to crave a certain thing, our bodies aren’t going to give that thing up easily.
Practicing sacrifice often helps our bodies break the tendency towards addiction and indulgence. Changing behavior takes time, but sacrifice can speed the process. Jesus talked about cutting off your hand if it causes you to sin. This may seem extreme, but it shows how important it is to get to Heaven. If gouging out your eye was the only way to get to Heaven, then it would be smart to embrace it.
It’s great to take vacations and enjoy the good things in life, but we must ensure that nothing interferes with our relationship with God. If we’re fortunate, we may enjoy this life for 100 years or so, but that pales in comparison to the eternity we could spend with God in Heaven. Don’t hesitate to remove whatever holds you back from fulfilling that eternal goal.
