Every time I go to the movies, there's a commercial that comes on the big screen following all of the upcoming movie previews. You may have seen this commercial too. It starts out with a blank white screen with a voice over that tells you to turn off your cellphones. Then, immediately following the voiceover, you start to hear popcorn being popped, and the image of perfect, buttery popcorn kernels start to fill the screen. Slowly, the popcorn begins to fall from the bottom of the picture revealing text that tells you the theatre is equipped with the best DLP Digital Projection. That's when the ice drops, and things get real. Ice cubes begin to fall from what appears to be Heaven, and the sights and sounds of Coca Cola filling up the screen take over your senses. After that, it's game over for me and at least three other people in their theatre. We all shamefully shuffle our way out to the concession stands to get over-priced popcorn and a giant ice-cold Coca-Cola because of the ridiculously unfair advertisement's use of the best DLP Digital projection and because we just can't deny ourselves.
As a marketing and advertising professional myself, I can't hate on or deny good advertising when I see it. That movie theatre's advertising to get people to buy some last minute popcorn and soda-pop is some of the best advertising I've ever experienced personally, bar none; however, there's something else about me absolutely having to HAVE that popcorn and coke that speaks more to the human existence than to that advertisement: Self-denial is the apex of human difficulty.
For me personally, some of the hardest things in life are waking up early instead of sleeping in and saying 'no' to that movie theatre popcorn. It's not that sleeping in on occasion, getting good rest and eating popcorn at the movies are bad things, they're just examples of things that I have a hard time controlling. These things tend to control me and point out the real struggle I have with denying myself and the cravings I have that I know I won't be happy about later. These are my self-denial woes, and though your self-denial woes may look different than mine, I think we all have them. We all have a hard time sometimes saying 'no' to our in-the-moment cravings when those cravings might not always be what's best for us or what we really want in the long run.
Most of us can say that in the long-run, we all want to look good and feel good; however why is it so hard to look good and feel good? One could blame pizza. After all, pizza sure looks good and sure feels good to eat, but too much pizza is counter to that deep long-run desire of wanting to look good and feel good. It's difficult to look good and feel good because we all have in-the-moment cravings that distract us from our long-term desires and goals. Self-denial takes a back seat, while the craving creature rears its ugly head. Its like what our bodies want, our minds don't, and what our flesh craves, our spirits want starved.
When I write, I tend to write in stories and metaphors. While there's truth to these stories, metaphors and examples, there is often something deeper to the stories and examples. In this case, I really do crave popcorn, sleep and pizza (who doesn't?) and, I really do struggle denying myself those things in the moment. That's why it's easy to write about; however, there are other things I crave more that distract me from what I want in the long-run in life and in my relationship with my Creator. It's the problem of self-denial that sometimes gets in my way, and I think sometimes, in humanity's way. It comes down to this question: Are our minds and our spirits stronger than our bodies and our cravings?
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: What our bodies want, our minds don't, and what our flesh craves, our spirits want starved.