“You’re only human, you’re allowed to make your share of mistakes. You better believe there will be times in your life when you’ll be feeling like a stumbling fool…”
—from “You’re Only Human” (Billy Joel; 1985)

Temptations. What image do you conjure when you hear or read that word? If you’re of my vintage, maybe an extremely popular Motown vocal group. In that same era, Flip Wilson’s character, Geraldine, made famous the saying, “The devil made me do it.” It was her stock answer for doing something she probably shouldn’t have done.

Aren’t we all guilty of that at times? We do something stupid, or downright dishonest, and then wonder, “Why?” A good question, to be sure, and a question with more than one answer. A secular explanation would go something like this: “We’re only human, so we all make mistakes.” No argument there—get in line behind me!

So, yes, we can explain it away, like the great Billy Joel did in his hit song. Or, maybe we could go for a more introspective, confessional answer: “On my own, without any help, the temptation was greater than my will to resist.”

It seems that hardly a week goes by without some revelation regarding a well-known person’s fall from grace. We scratch our heads and wonder how it could happen. If we think about it, why couldn’t it happen? The people we often put on a pedestal are, after all, as vulnerable as the rest of us.

Recently, I taught a group of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students the well-known story of Jesus’ three temptations during his forty days in the desert. The lesson was out of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Matthew’s account is very similar and just as detailed. The lesson for the kids was two-pronged: First, if the devil dared to tempt Jesus, won’t he do the same to all of us? Second, just as Jesus depended on scriptural references to resist, we should do the same.

Even the staunchest atheist or the most dedicated agnostic will admit there’s a moral code of right versus wrong that most people adhere to. They may not agree to attribute such conduct to divine guidance, even though it’s hard to explain it otherwise. Are we born basically good and decent people, and then we’re subject to the positive and negative influences we encounter? And, if so, who orchestrated our clean slate as a birthright?

Whatever you believe its origin to be, that moral code explains the civility of our collective nature. But aren’t we seeing the erosion of that code? Why? One obvious explanation is that today’s society is more self-centered, with the belief that anything is good and proper if it pleases the individual.

It’s one thing to have a positive self-image. It’s quite another to believe that if you think it, do it, or say it, and it pleases you, then anything goes. The more egocentric we are, the less responsibility we’ll take for what others would consider egregious conduct. Temptation no longer exists because no choice is wrong.

Is it just a coincidence that this sea change in how we view personal responsibility and right versus wrong has occurred as our society has drifted farther away from God? Probably not. If there’s no divine true north guiding us, then whatever direction we choose to take—that is, whatever we elect to do—is the right one.

Flip Wilson who, by report, was not a strongly religious man, often instilled religion into his routines. He’d talk about “the Rev,” and he’d often invoke the devil’s name, either directly or through Geraldine’s voice. Though it was presented “tongue in cheek,” maybe there was a hint that he was looking for divine guidance—looking for a way to resist temptation. On a subconscious level, maybe he was looking for God’s help.

Not a bad idea for any of us when we’re confronted by temptation!

Pixabay photo courtesy of Lixxe