LIVING THE LIFE- temptation

Hello readers. I worry about people in America. Every night, I see commercials for items that are not remotely worth what is being asked for them. And those commercials persist, some for thousands of years (ok, maybe an exaggeration). Therefore, someone is buying enough of these items such that the advertiser thinks it will make a profit. The way commercials are paid for varies among the advertisers (or their agents) and the broadcasters (or their agents). Some commercials (especially infomercials) are paid on percentages of sales, rather than a fee per minute. So the broadcasters become partners (at least as to sales) with the advertisers. That means that two separate organizations have exercised their minds and hope that using this half-hour to sell this item will yield a profit. I don't think the TV station pays for losses Ron Popeil's successors may have, but they do share in the revenues. Actually, since Ron sold his company for an estimated $55 million, he probably didn't have much loss to share.

I have been the beneficiary of Ron's inventiveness. My father-in-law bought the Showtime Rotisserie. My wife and I had a chuckle, but he was quite insistent we use it. He bought a standing rib roast to prove this oven. Turns out his roast was too big to fit in the oven. So we bought a smaller roast and put it in for the specified time. "Set it and forget it!" The roast was perfect, very juicy and flavorful. While we were eating we admitted our first reluctance, but ended by saying we were wrong. However, when we began cleaning up, "set it and forget it" was what you wished for. No automatic clean setting here! We finally ferreted out all the congealed juices and used it many more times. All in all, it was a useful addition to our cooking options, and brought a lot of pleasure to all of us.

But overall, I have very little faith in TV salesmen. I had many clients who ordered a wide range of products from TV. (In some past lives I have been an attorney.) I know they did because they came to me to fix their problems. Chief was that they paid for a product and it never appeared. If you paid by credit card you could appeal to the card company and they will write it off your bill if their investigation agreed with you. But a lot of poor people do not have bank accounts or credit cards. They order by sending a postal order or other form of payment, but do not follow the procedures listed in the draft for protecting themselves. These people are left without the protection that most of us take for granted. A letter from me to the company sometimes solved the problem, but usually they could ignore me as well as my clients. You could file a small claims action, but if you won, how would you collect?

Getting something that was not ordered was the next most frequent problem, followed by products that did not work. The same problems applied to these transactions as well. And still, these people continued to see something on TV that caused them to try one more time, against all logic. Why? After a lot of thought it came to me. It was simple- the ads tempted them. But what is the power of temptation? I wondered what it is that resides in men and women that allows temptation to cancel out our experiences.

When I truthfully examined my mental state when I gave in to temptations, I began to see it. I don't like to admit this, but when tempted, I start to rationalize. My mind picks out the facts that make this situation unique from my experience. Its not the same company that defrauded me before. I can really use this product. It must be God who led me to be awake and watching when this commercial came on. Does this seem funny, given my vast experiences with infomercial marketers? As I write it, this seems schizophrenic: the imaginary Me finds reasons to believe that that the advice the real Me gives to clients all the time is stupid.

It brought to mind Mark Twains' musings on experience as a teacher. "A cat that sits on a hot stove lid will never sit on a hot lid again. And that is good. But it will never sit on a cold one either." Of course, people have reasoning beyond a cat and can define what lessons should be taken from our experiences. But isn't that the problem? That allows my mind to think that maybe this stove lid is also cold, or maybe I can touch it only a little, or maybe that lid is so close to something it makes the risk of the stove lid seem remote.

My mind can override my good sense. And not me only. We all know of situations where people have acted in complete defiance of their experience. People who have gone to Vegas and come back a winner only once in 38 times, and are in debt for obscene amounts. Yet they still book trips "only because of the climate." Sons and daughters who have seen what happens when people they love take drugs, but still they "experiment" with drugs themselves. People who have survived an IRS audit, but who still cheat on their taxes. And when that audit comes, the amount of money "saved" always seems insignificant. Temptation is that powerful.

In all of these cases, it did not begin with a full blown addiction or compulsion. Instead it was something little. They went to a party and the entire peer pressure process convinced them to take a puff. Their brief "experience" put in mind the idea that this wasn't so terrible. It was even pleasant. Inveterate gamblers who gamble again because they were "so close" to fabulous riches. Some of these people could not keep track of their bank account for one weekend because they forgot all the cash withdrawals they "needed." But it is an item of absolute certainty to them that they have won more scratch offs than they lost. Save your breath: there is no argument or proof that will convince them to the contrary.

It isn't my purpose to analyze the mental states and processes or psychologies that move people, beyond what John said. "For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life- is not of the Father but is of the world." I John 2:16 (NKV). I know that some people are more disposed by genetics to be obsessive or compulsive. But that concerns an action that has already started. What accounts for a person who knows alcoholism runs in the family, has suffered abuse by people who should have loved them, but who still decides to take a drink or to get drunk. That person has been tempted, and the mind's rationalizations have won out over real experience.

John has given us a very comprehensive, though general, list of the pleasures that motivate us to give in to temptation. I think this is why each person's temptations are unique to that person. Maybe alcohol is so very pleasant to one persons' taste or sensations (lust of the flesh). Another person gets drunk to deal with peer pressure (pride of life). Taking a pretty partner to bed may be satisfaction of the flesh to one person, but it satisfies the lust of the eyes for another. But for all the things that we know are not good for us, we find them just too pleasant to deny ourselves. Is that a function of our id, or ego or super ego? Or maybe of the pleasure centers in our brain? I do not pretend to know. I only look at what myself and others' minds do when tempted.

Even though I classify my self as a Christian, it doesn't mean that I am perfect or that all of my actions follow what I believe God wants from me. I'm just as prone to sin or temptation as anyone else. As John says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." I John 1:8. I may be different from other people, in that I have decided to fight against my sins and temptations. But the pull of sin is not lost on me. I think that sometimes it feels more powerful to me because I work so hard not to indulge.

I would agree that the temptation to buy the Greatest Hits of the 60's and 70's is not in a league with some people's compulsive attraction to drugs or alcohol or money. I personally see few instances where giving in to a temptation to buy TV products can be classified as sinful (an exception: when the compulsion to purchase things is harmful to yourself or another person). But giving in to any sinful temptation is sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant. After all, that is the classic rationalization, "This is too small to be a sin, or to matter to God."

The second classic rationalization is that God must think exactly like I do. I have heard too many times people who are in the throes of temptation say phrases like, "There is no way you can convince me that... " or, " I just cannot believe that God would want me to ... ." I find no reference in the Bible or other type of revelation that proclaims my beliefs or convictions are binding on God in any way, or that God has given me any special dispensation to clarify God's commands by telling people my personal beliefs. It appears that I will not find Jehovah's will for me by relying on myself for final confirmation.

In the following posts which are titled Living the Life, I want to discuss how other people have thought different things are sinful, or are not sinful. I do not want people to come to my way of thinking. Instead, I want all of us to come to Jehovah's way of thinking. If there are any people reading this, I hope they will chime in with their thoughts. Until my next post, I hope we all have a happy day!