On the fortieth anniversary of her song “Physical,” Olivia Newton-John commented that back in 1981 this song was considered raunchy. Then she quipped that in comparison to the songs on the radio today it is like a lullaby. How can the salacious become tame? We know the answer.

The entertainment industry thrives on feeding fleshly desires. Will something tantalize? Is it a forbidden pleasure? Will it arouse desire, perhaps a private dark thrill? Then push the envelope! Offering the thrill generates money. Customers satisfying such desires only deepen their appetite for more.

Then it happens. The old stimulus does not excite as much as it first did. A certain numbness to the old stimuli begins to grow. To experience the same level of excitement requires pushing the envelope toward an ever more provocative, more salacious, or more forbidden pleasure.

The appetite creeps in from being a lark on the periphery toward becoming a  central life force; it seeks to become a relentless and demanding master. A pattern of decisions emerge seeking more. What feels like irresistible urges grow in intensity.

Paul aptly summed up this downward spiral where bad information has empowered pursuing the wrong goals. “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.  Having lost all feeling, they have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Ephesians 4:18-19

The goal is not to feel excitement. However, there is nothing wrong in being excited. Pleasure is not the goal. Yet again, there is nothing wrong with pleasure. The goal is not acquisition. Yet, possessions are not evil. Failure to grasp what our Creator intended to drive our lives will result in hamstringing a life lived well.

If people will seek God and his righteousness not only will society be healthier but people can experience the life God intended. Joy, peace and contentment will replace emptiness, numbness and unfettered desire. Love replaces narcissism. And what was raunchy at one point of time will continue to be raunchy much later.

“Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit” (Galatians 6:7-8).

Barry Newton Link to original article