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From the Editor From the Editor

Out of Control

By Darla Knoth

Appetite. It's a word we all understand as we deal with our own appetites daily. The dictionary defines appetite as "an inherent craving," or a need we were born with.

C.S. Lewis discusses our appetites in his classic Mere Christianity. He classifies sexual purity as one of the most unpopular Christian virtues. "Obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct, as it now is, has gone wrong," Lewis writes. Because he was a Christian, he favored the idea that instinct has gone wrong.

What if a person's appetite for food were as out of control as sexual appetites are? True, some people may overeat. But as Lewis points out, "One man may eat enough for two, but he does not eat enough for ten."

But what if you went to a country where you could fill a theater by "simply bringing a covered plate onto the stage and slowly lifting the cover" to display food? Lewis asks, "Would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food?" He asserts that any appetite can become an absurd "excess of its function." The desires for work, pleasure, food or sex can all become excessive.

As Lewis discussed this topic, he admitted that no one can overcome sexual addiction by "merely human efforts." Lewis encouraged readers to "ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given." He also encouraged readers to ask for forgiveness after each failure. "Pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again." Lewis was convinced, as you can be, that "this process trains us in the habits of the soul . . . and teaches us to depend on God." Isn't that what we all should want?

Darla KnothDARLA KNOTH serves as Managing Editor for the national Women’s Ministries Department. She has experience in editing, publishing and overseeing the publications staff of Women’s Ministries, as well as serving as an adjunct faculty member at Evangel University.

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