Our lives are like easily crushed plastic cups. We ignore their frailty and go full out to fill them with pleasurable things. We inevitably wander into the weeds because we’re ignorant of what is truly good apart from God’s intervention.
We chase wahoo, wealth, and winning. What do these three represent? They correspond to the downward pull of the lusts of the flesh, and eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).
We pursue wahoo feelings. We want to feel good now instead of putting forth the effort to do good before we feel good. We sow to our fleshly appetites. We often reap serious trouble and pain in the long run. We discover that the pleasure bone is connected to the perpetual pain bone.
At best, living for wahoo distracts us from the ultimately important. At worst, it threatens our very existence. Does your overflowing cup make a mess?
For example, people begin smoking as teenagers to feel more grown up. Long-term health disasters erupt when ephemeral good feelings are long gone, replaced by addiction’s crushing grip.
People drink alcohol to inject joy into their drab lives. The momentary thrill often leads to an addiction and being saddled with various alcohol-induced physical ailments.
The good feelings of recreational drugs often eventually result in premature death. Fatal fentanyl overdoses peaked above 112,000 deaths in 2023 in the U.S., with young people and people of color affected most.1
Wahoo often ends with Boohoo. Pampering fleshly appetites is hazardous to our health. We don’t notice until it is too late to do much about the consequences.
We pursue wealth, thinking it will provide security and finance maximum pleasure. This despite Jesus saying how much we own isn’t a measure of life (Luke 12:15). We think we know better than Jesus what is best for us.
We pursue winning. The mother of James and John wanted her two sons to sit in the most important positions of honor in Jesus’ Kingdom (Matthew 20:21).
Like her, we want the best for ourselves because we think we deserve it. Pride is our automatic steering system. It motivates us to look down on others.
We fill our lives with wahoo, wealth, and winning even though none satisfy the hunger and thirst of our souls. God would fill the cup of our lives very differently. His living water causes us to overflow with love, joy, peace, and purpose. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
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