35. Captured by Good

Sometimes good captures us—the partner mission’s success; a neighbor’s new car and paid-off mortgage; a coworker’s great health, a clean house, and well-behaved kids; a wide-screen, high-definition, surround-sound home theater system. God gives good things, but the fight begins when the cute singer on the worship team expels the song from imagination’s space. Wrestle the thought and smash temptation to the floor. Don’t look there, turn the other way. But the other way is not like the other cheek. The beautiful monster escapes the restraining grasp and dances before our hearts with easy insolence—again and again and again.

Denying a good thing’s existence contradicts the truth. But the truth that God wired us to recognize the good He created sets us free. We discovered helium on the Sun before we found it on Earth—not because it wasn’t here, but because we didn’t know how to see it. Likewise, we overcome distraction by learning to see the best, located beyond the good, just like the crew of C.S. Lewis’ ship, Dawn Treader, saw Aslan’s land beyond and higher than the sun. On the other side of good, we find His best containing all good things for enjoyment in their proper place, at their proper time. Out of context, good things bedevil, ensnare, and distract. Submitted to Him, however, they bless.