Disordered Desires

In our age of information overload, sin in its varied forms is paraded continually before us. It is tempting to latch onto a particular manifestation of evil and make it the logo for things we abhor. However, scripture rarely does this. In fact, the only evil consistently railed against by God Himself is idolatry, a sin of which we are all guilty.

The primary foundation of all sin 
is God-given desire turned upside down. 

The very first sin in the Garden of Eden was one of disordered desires. God planted desires within the human heart. They are not evil in themselves. However, what God creates, Satan manipulates. Satan hijacked a good desire within Eve---to be like God. The desire was good, but the way she chose to achieve it was not.

At the root of most manifestations of evil are disordered desires. Idolatry starts with the innate longing to worship someone or something greater than ourselves. Rather than look to the Creator who planted that desire within us, we substitute lesser objects in His place. Greed, covetousness, and envy start with healthy desires to provide for ourselves and our loved ones. But that desire turns evil when it becomes disordered by the lack of contentment. Homosexuality, immorality, sensuality, and promiscuity are rooted in the God-given desire for sexual intimacy. But they go awry when sinful man chooses his own ways to fulfill them.

When we see the atrocities of our world, it is easy to become frustrated and even prideful, imagining ourselves beyond such things. But when we recognize our own disordered desires and how they manifest in our lives in ungodly ways, we can respond to this disordered world with more compassion and humility. That person shrieking his or her foul agenda has the same problem I do: desires gone dark. Only a face-to-face encounter with Jesus can bring order to our desires. Only then does He promise to give us the desires of our hearts. (Ps. 37:4)