We Always Want to Do What We Cannot

Human beings are a bit peculiar in that they always want to do what they cannot do. Granted, there is a difference between what we cannot do and what we are not supposed to do, but the two are related in the way they evoke the desire for the forbidden or the seemingly unobtainable.

I watched a little bit of Space Odyssey: 2001 the other night until I couldn't take any more of the music. The 1968 perception of what would be available in 2001 was interesting. For instance, a phone in a "phone booth" presented as a big computer console with a 19 inch color screen. You put your credit card in a slot and make a video call. They could not envision cell phones that will do the same in the palm of your hand or Skype that will make a video call to anywhere in the world without the $1.70 charge to your credit card.

The interesting thing to me is that we have gone more text based than video based. The first long distance communication was the telegraph, now we "telegraph" from the palms of our hands. We want to text because it is clean, quick, not messy, just to the point, and we don't have to answer back if we don't want even in the middle of a conversation.

Why the facination with video capabilities, when all we would eventually want to do is still send typed words... simple, because we couldn't do it. Since we couldn't do it we (they) perceived that it would be the apex of communication achievement.

I'll admit this line of thinking embraces a lot of speculation.

The first thing God said to man was that he could eat anything in the garden except the fruit of one tree, and if they ate of that one tree they would die.

The first thing Satan said to man was that if they ate of the fruit of that same tree, they would not die.

The same interchange is present today. God tells us there are consequences for our actions and Satan tells us there are no consequences. I'd rather believe personified truth than personified deception.

We press to new heights when told we cannot. We push to new lows when we are told we should not. Its something in our nature. That nature needs to be redeemed. The new heights are a good thing, the new lows are not.

We need to focus our curiosity, our entrepreneurial spirits, our reach for the unreachable to noble, God-honoring, and eternally significant tasks. How does our reaching take ourselves and humankind closer to God? How does our reaching demonstrate the compassion of Christ, so others, too, may know him? How does our reaching make us better, and others better? Some questions to ponder as we press into new things and new places.