Last night, as Hector (whom you'll be happy to hear did not contract lycanthropy) was keeping watch, he saw a set of faint lights, like those of torches or lanterns, off in the woods. He roused his companions, and the sneakiest among them went off into the dark woods to investigate the mysterious lights. Even after several minutes, he didn't return. It turned out that the mysterious lights were Will-O'-Wisps, and they had tricked him into falling into a potentially-deadly pit of noxious fumes. On their own, the Wisps were harmless; they were just lights. But with a deadly trap to lure adventurers into, the Wisps had become a serious threat.
Similarly, temptations are also harmless, yet deadly. They are harmless in that they are just thoughts, but they are spiritually-deadly in that they can lead us into vicious traps. However, they share the same weakness that Will-O'-Wisps have: we can ignore them. The only way the Wisps were able to threaten Hector's companion was by convincing him to follow them, and the same is true for temptations; the only way temptations can harm us is by convincing us to follow them. We can choose not to. If we resist the temptations, they will be unable to harm us. It is only when we follow temptations that they gain the power to destroy us.
Last night, Hector and his companions learned better than to follow strange lights into the dark woods again. May we also learn not to follow such dangerous temptations. We may think temptations are harmless (and as long as we resist them, they are), but as soon as we begin to follow them, we will be at risk of finding out just how deadly they can be.
1 comment:
I think we must do more than simply try to ignore many temptations. They are persistent, insidious, and, well, TEMPTING. We must order them to leave and we must replace them with other thoughts. Powerful thoughts - a hymn, personal oaths, favorite scripture. Even then I find that temptations often resist banishment. We must take command and do battle royal.
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