The Glutton of Grace

Gluttony and self-control. How often we hear those two paired, but I always seem to think that self-control is a way to regain ground lost to the inner glutton. Oh! I just ate an entire chocolate cake! I must regain self-control and go run 10 miles! But I think there is a better way to prevent that deadly sin to make a mockery of the work God is performing in and through us. Gluttony is, as its root, a willingness to replace all desire and want with the pleasure derived from a certain thing.

But God gave us a world full of pleasures! Are we not to enjoy the cocophony of wonders He happily bestows? Of course we are, and we are to enjoy them to the fullest. But the Psalmist writes in the 44th psalm we are to "boast in God continuously, [ . . . ] and give thanks to [His] name forever." If we are truly living with a thankful heart, the desire for anything more than God gives will be completely unnecessary. The thankful heart continuously praising our good God will be in rapturous joy for the things already given and the promises for the blessings to come.

Such a heart only desires to feast itself on the grace and goodness of a loving God. Rather than worry about how to regain the already lost self-control, temper the hedonistic passions on the goodness and love from our pleasure-loving Lord.