{"id":10174,"date":"2022-10-10T02:16:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T02:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10174"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:33:48","slug":"something-other-than-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10174","title":{"rendered":"SOMETHING OTHER THAN GOD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>&#8220;Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.&#8221;<\/i> &#8211; C. S. Lewis<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have long maintained that every sin we commit starts as a search to satisfy some legitimate need or desire.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>We want to be loved.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>We want to be valued.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>We want to have influence.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n<li>We want protection and security.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>We want relief from pain and fear.<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But then our search to meet these legitimate goals takes us to all the wrong places.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So we gossip to influence others, we lie to protect ourselves, and we deaden our pain with endless entertainment or chemical substances.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we truly recognize this in ourselves &#8211; that our sins are an attempt to fill valid needs &#8211; it makes it easier to change bad patterns of behavior. &#8220;What am I really after here?&#8221; can be a powerful question for redirecting our own behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we truly recognize this in others &#8211; that their sins are attempts to fill their own valid needs &#8211; I believe it makes us more sympathetic. Less judgmental. Perhaps we can even be instrumental in helping them find legitimate fulfillment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.&#8221; &#8211; C. S. Lewis I have long maintained that every sin we commit starts as a search to satisfy some legitimate need or desire.\u00a0 For example: But then our search to meet these legitimate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10175,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10174\/revisions\/10175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}