Becoming aware of our worldly passions that lead us away from God

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Robert_Sock

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I believe that passions that do not lead us to God are worldly and are a product of Satan. My passion is classical music which I play on expensive audio gear. Much of my music is sacred and I try my best to allow it to lead me to God, but sometimes I have to wonder if I’m “sinning” when I take too much pleasure in it. Even the secular music, I try to convince myself, leads me to God.

A few months back I developed a passion for fine wine but I did not think it was leading me to God and so I gave it up.

I guess there are a lot of neutral passions that neither lead us to or from God, but I believe it’s good practice to become more aware of our passions and try to rid ourselves of those things that occupy ourselves without leading us to God.

I would like your thoughtful (name removed by moderator)ut here. Is it not good to limit ourselves as much as possible to those things that lead us to God? Not that these negative things are necessarily sinful, but that it would please God to limit those things that do not directly lead us to Him.
 
In moderation morally neutral things are fine and good. They are gifts or blessings from God. When understood that way, they do bring you closer to God by increasing our awareness of just how good he is to us by giving us things to experience in this life which are pleasing to us even though they are not necessary.

I would think that using the gifts He has given us and thanking him for them, is more pleasing to Him than not using them out of fear of taking something away from him.
 
As long as we don’t get so caught up in world things such as browsing the Web or watching TV and saying to ourselves I will pray later after I do this online or after I watch this one TV…we have to draw a line were we put God first. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of world ways and materials things but we must never lose focus on God.
 
Robert_Sock said:
I believe that passions that do not lead us to God are worldly and are a product of Satan. My passion is classical music which I play on expensive audio gear. Much of my music is sacred and I try my best to allow it to lead me to God, but sometimes I have to wonder if I’m “sinning” when I take too much pleasure in it. Even the secular music, I try to convince myself, leads me to God.

A few months back I developed a passion for fine wine but I did not think it was leading me to God and so I gave it up.

I guess there are a lot of neutral passions that neither lead us to or from God, but I believe it’s good practice to become more aware of our passions and try to rid ourselves of those things that occupy ourselves without leading us to God.

I would like your thoughtful (name removed by moderator)ut here. Is it not good to limit ourselves as much as possible to those things that lead us to God? Not that these negative things are necessarily sinful, but that it would please God to limit those things that do not directly lead us to Him.
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I do agree with you. Anything else that we do more than we should, would be bringing us away from God.

It builds on the premise that we are given a quota or volume in our capacity for love or devotion from which we used in our lives, like we are given twenty four hours of time a day, not more or less. And we have to be good steward to manage them, allocating various portions according to our priorities accordingly, all from which are taken from the same reservoir.

If God should become the number one in our life, He should reasonably be allocated the biggest portion from that reservoir. It means any other passion needed for other interest would necessarily has to be encroached upon what one has allocated or given to God.

Perhaps, this is the reason why the saints really wanted to empty themselves of other loves other than God. There is just too little to go around and they wanted most of it, if not all, for God alone.

That’s probably putting things on the extreme but I guess it’s the principle of our relationship with God.

If we were to work on that premise, then it needs to be a delicate balancing act. What is enough and what is too much? I like my new car but do I think about it even when I do not drive it or maybe looking into ways where I can get extra accessories for it, perhaps just to adorn it with new gadgets?

In my experience, I probably fell into that traps too many times and they would always affect my spiritual life each time which needed some undoings.

On the other hand, it is good to have wholesome interest on things we like but then again, to be aware the limit we place our passion in them, remembering that our first love must not be jeopardized.

God bless.
 
As long as you can say “Thank You, God!” and really be thankful and enjoy it each time that you listen to it then you are ok… Follow your conscience more.
 
More and more, I’m seeing this life as a journey with each day being just one more step towards home. I’m beginning to see the drama in my life as nothing. I would like to live the rest of my life with a roof over my head and to be able to listen to my classical music collection, but not much else matters. Besides paying my rent, money means very little to me. Although my adjusted gross income is below the poverty level, I feel I have more than I need and I manage to donate to a charity each month and give my daughter money that she “needs.” It’s a good way of looking at things and it greatly reduces day-to-day stress.

Each day I spend a good amount of time in Centering Prayer and I see it little more than sweeping the Temple clean for the Holy Spirit. Keeping my life simple allows for The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit which includes wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and the fear of God. What more can a Christian ask for?

As for seeking a good spiritual director, I can see where that would be nice, but my spiritual life seems to be blossoming and I would probably be very reluctant to change much of anything except to become more ascetic.
 
Robert_Sock said:
I believe that passions that do not lead us to God are worldly and are a product of Satan. My passion is classical music which I play on expensive audio gear. Much of my music is sacred and I try my best to allow it to lead me to God, but sometimes I have to wonder if I’m “sinning” when I take too much pleasure in it. Even the secular music, I try to convince myself, leads me to God.

A few months back I developed a passion for fine wine but I did not think it was leading me to God and so I gave it up.

I guess there are a lot of neutral passions that neither lead us to or from God, but I believe it’s good practice to become more aware of our passions and try to rid ourselves of those things that occupy ourselves without leading us to God.

I would like your thoughtful (name removed by moderator)ut here. Is it not good to limit ourselves as much as possible to those things that lead us to God? Not that these negative things are necessarily sinful, but that it would please God to limit those things that do not directly lead us to Him.
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Great revelation! You must have no attachment to anything material is the true freedom to live in the Gospel of Peace.
 
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