The Beast Within Us
We all have appetites for something. I just got back from a business trip and spent a single night in Las Vegas a.k.a. sin city. After going to sleep in my hotel room at 10:10 PM I had a rude awakening. The drunk couple in the room next door started fighting. The argument they were having got louder and louder. For some reason I was not mad about the noise, but instead curious about the content of the argument they were having. As the argument escalated a lamp hit the wall and shattered, then the man started getting physically violent with his girl friend. It became obvious that I needed to call hotel security to intervene. The reason I feel compelled to write this article is the underlying reason many people go to Las Vegas a.k.a. sin city. This article is about the unhealthy appetites in each one of us and the painful path they often carve out in our way. In this article I will be addressing the beast within each and every one of us.
Last week I watched a documentary on methamphetamine addiction. I learned about the lengths a person will go to support their drug habit. Some people become hard workers in order to make the money necessary to support their habits. I have a very close friend who was a cocaine addict and literally became the hardest worker in his company to support this habit. I once knew a cocaine dealer who at times made up to $40,000 per week selling cocaine and he used another legitimate business as a front to launder that money. I have met many different forms of addicts, but they all have one thing in common they need money to feed the beast within.
What is the beast within?
There is a saying that goes like this “There is no rest for the wicked”. To discover our own beast within we need to look no farther then our own appetites. For some it is as easy as to follow the money and where they spend it, but for others it may require deeper analysis. Here is a good example. A man with a mid-life crisis feels as if his life has not amounted to much. A mid-life crisis is based around the following questions. Who am I after all these years? Who did I set out to be and why did I miss that mark? A married man in a mid-life crisis will long for the look that he may have once saw in his wife’s eyes. Every man knows what I mean when I mention that special look. This look a man once saw in his wife’s eyes helped form this image of himself that he once loved. As time passed in his marriage he started seeing this look less and less frequently in time even losing his own self respect. I guess a mid-life crisis or an identity crisis in general could be defined as a quest to find the person you once were or the quest to find a certain reflection of yourself you once saw in the eyes others. Other examples of identity crisis are linked to a pastor’s church shrinking or a movie stars ratings shrinking or a rock star’s fan base shrinking. The beast within is always linked to a need for affirmation, security or validation for the purpose of easing tormenting fear.
The lengths people will go to feed the beast within
Show me a successful entrepreneur and in most cases I will show you a man with a horrific beast within. Investigate the divorce rate amongst entrepreneurs and you will most likely find it is alarmingly high. Why is a man able to work endless hours and why was he even willing to sacrifice his own family to achieve success? Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” However make no mistake because the beast comes in many different forms and cannot be limited to money alone. Today we have different terms for this beast like obsessive compulsive behavior or addictive personality disorder, but all these represent different forms of the beast within us. Where do we spend most of our time, what lengths are we willing to go and what does that tell us about who we are? Some people are so obsessed with becoming an authority that they despise all authority. Look at successful pastors and politicians and you will often find a ferocious beast within these leaders. In conclusion, we can link all sin and the breaking of every one of the Ten Commandments to the lengths that people are willing to go to feed the beast within.
