"Wisdom Cries Out"
Hooked On a Feeling
“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Proverbs 9.17)
There is a rush in taking what is forbidden. That’s what got Eve in the very beginning (Genesis 3.1-6). The feeling that “I shouldn’t, but I did” is empowering to our selfish nature.
If something is hard to get (or forbidden) you immediately pay more attention to it. When you’re on a diet, you probably fixate on those cookies you can’t have. This heightened attention makes them seem extremely important, when we know they are not good for us.
Our brains love the pursuit of the forbidden because the unpredictability offers higher highs than if we got the desired reward all the time. Just like an addict, we can get hooked on this feeling and start chasing a high, like a drug.
We live in a culture where experience is king. This is why companies repackage their products, roll out new features, and use vibrant colors and brighter lights… the same old will just not do. We are conditioned to believe we need something we don’t already have.
If we cultivate a way of life in pursuit of a feeling, we will never be satisfied. But worse, it will prompt us to irrational behavior in pursuit of fulfillment. We must not allow our feelings to override good sense.
Listen to this quote from a popular TV show: “Too often, the thing you want most is the one thing you can’t have. Desire leaves us heartbroken; it wears us out. Desire can wreck your life.”
Not only will it wreck us… it will destroy us (Proverbs 9.18).
