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Formation

The Elephant and the Rider

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A few weeks back at Christ Kaleidoscope we talked about the critical role self-control plays in Christian discipleship. Because of our affluence, there is very little to limit our desires. We can pretty much get or do what we want, when we want. This kind of “freedom” is a blessing for sure, but it can also be(come) a curse. What often happens is that over time we become slaves to our wants and appetites, which, when given no compelling vision of the good, grow wanton and unwieldy. We see this bondage most poignantly when we want to effect some kind of change in our lives. We try to change, but we find we can’t. In the famous words of St. Paul, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do,” (Romans 7:20).

An apt analogy for this is that of an animal with a person sitting on its back. It dates back to Plato and has recently been popularized as the elephant and the rider. Compared to the strength of a 6 ton animal, the rider is small and weak. But the rider is smart and is able to point the elephant in the desired direction by pulling hard on the reigns she holds in her hands. But the rider will soon grow tired and when she does, the elephant will roam where it wants.

There are a variety of ways to understand this analogy. The elephant represents our wants and desires and passions. When there is no direction given, the elephant wanders and can stray in some troublesome directions. Willpower, on the other hand, is represented by the strength of the rider. While we may be able to exert some degree of self-control for a period of time, over the long haul, exhuasation sets in and the elephant ends up, once again, going its own way.

In terms of Christian discipleship, the elephant might be understood as our “old self” with all its ingrained and deep-seated practices. Pulling the reigns on these lingering habits often feels like trying to tame a 6 ton beast. Nonetheless we are told in Scripture to put off these practices, to take off the old self and put on the new.

What might this look like?

Well, if we use the analogy of the elephant and the rider we might put together a two-pronged strategy: (1) keep the rider rested and strong and (2) train the elephant.

(1) We might think of self-control as a muscle. If you exercise it for too long the less effective it becomes. And so like a muscle, we need to make time to rest. Here, sleep becomes a spiritual discipline. We all know we tend to get more cranky and unruly when we have gotten enough sleep. Well it seems there’s a reason for it. Sleep replenishes us to do the hard work of taming our elephants, so to speak. (We might also mention, diet and exercise here as critical elements to keeping our bodies energized for the task of Christian discipleship – things we don’t normally label as “spiritual.”)

(2) We can also train the elephant. That is, train our desires so that they become more in line with the good God envisions for us. The primary practice here would be worship. To put ourselves in a place with other believers where we are confronted with the beauty of the one who invites us to become “holy as I am holy.” Through prayer, through lifting up our voices in song, through hearing the reading and proclamation of Scripture, through confession and onto the central practice of gathering around the table, receiving the body and blood of our Lord, to being sent out into the world with God’s blessing, these become ways in which we align our wants and desires and passions to the wants and desires and passions of God.

A secondary practice would be to spend some time in a passage like Ephesians 4:17-32 or Colossians 3:1-17 and focus on one thing that needs to be put to death in our lives: anger, gossip, lying, lust, filthy language, etc. There’s a lot to choose from in these passages). But we single out one and instead of expending our energy on figuring out how to grasp the next rung on the corporate ladder or how we can experience the next cool thing, we channel our attention and initiative on how we might rid ourselves of that one thing we need to put to death.

The hope is as we put all these things together we can cooperate with the work of the Spirit in us so that we find ourselves bearing the fruit of Christ’s character in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and (of course) self-control.

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Conversation #2: Desires

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There was a saying popular among me and my closest high school friends whenever we did something outrageous. It was our universal explanation for the inexplicable. Accidentally suicide in Super Smash Bros.–”I do what I want!” Attempt a half-court shot in a 5-on-5 basketball game–“I do what I want!” Out of nowhere, punch a friend in the nuts–“I do what I want!”

This terribly self-indulgent, but terribly fun, practice came from a 2002 episode of South Park that I do not recommend watching. In it, Cartman goes on the talk show Maury, pretending to be an out-of-control teen in order to win a prize. In order of atrociousness: “I had sex without protection; it’s my hot body–I do what I want!” “I slaughtered five baby seals with my bare hands this morning–I do what I want!” “I digitally put Jabba the Hut back into the original Star Wars movie–I do what I want!”

The scenarios above seem outrageous, but if we take a step back and strip down our actions, “I do what I want” is at the base of almost everything we do. Even something as simple as choosing what to eat for breakfast can be boiled down to the question: “what do I want?” Is it convenience? McDonald’s. Is it health? Oatmeal. Is it time? Nothing. Is it pleasurable taste? Small children.

Lobster

(That was a joke.)

 

The question of desire is especially apparent when we find ourselves in the tension between immediate and future consequences. In most cases, the more immediate gratification wins the race. (How many of us have procrastinated and then severely regretted it at the end?) However, somewhere along the line of our lives, we’ve also been taught to play for delayed rewards. We do things that we don’t want to do because we want what comes later even more. The most familiar examples are studying and exercising. We don’t want to do these things, but we want the future benefits we think they will bring us. One way or another, we are still following the maxim, “I do what I want.”

Therefore, it is important for us to consider how desire motivates our actions. Living in a world that is constantly vying for our desires, we need to carefully examine our habitual actions. We shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking private actions like watching pornography or indulging in sweets aren’t a big deal. They have the devastating ability to enslave us to gratifying our immediate desires.

Desires is a subject especially relevant for those of us who are fasting through Lent. As often happens, “who’s going to know?” or “what’s the big deal?” pop into my head during this season. However, when they have, it’s helped to ask myself, “what is it that I really want?” This is why I think it’s a great practice to physically write down the desires that we wish were more central to our lives. Going back to the lookbook and seeing the words “to affirm one another” “to pray more,” “to be more present in the community” is more than just a reminder. It is one of our first lines of defense against a world that is constantly bombarding our attention with advertisements, both overt and subliminal. It is a billboard of the ways the Holy Spirit is working in us. It is a prayer that says, “God, make it so that when ‘I do what I want,’ it is what you want, too.”