The Why of What

Why do we love, like, show interest in, or spend time doing things?  The answer for some of these things is very easy. We go to work so we can support ourselves and our family. We eat because we are hungry and we sleep because we are tired. But what about everything else?  Why do we watch movies, listen to music, involve ourselves in sports, either watching or playing, eat dessert, have sex, drink wine, socialize, go to church, read books, learn things or go on vacation?

One could write or talk for a long time on each of these subjects, but i am going to approach this from a different angle. This will not be a talk on which of these things are acceptable and which are not. That is much too Protestant. Instead i am going to suggest a single possible motivation behind them all.

The motivation behind these things may simply be distraction. We very well could be doing different actions, either sinful or not, as a way of distracting ourselves. One thing the early church fathers talk about is silence. Learning to sit alone, for a lengthy period of time and do nothing. Simply sitting in silence and examining what is in ourselves. Eventually, they say, we will discover that we are empty shells.  This sort of practice should reveal that without God have and are nothing. It is only then that we can really learn to throw ourselves on the mercy of God and find solace in him alone.

We may find that all of these other things, good and bad, merely distract us from that which is ultimately important, understanding our relationship with God and how bad off we are apart from him.