"So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27 NLT)
Clearly, God did not create us with desires simply so that we would renounce them. As Paul insisted, this world is God’s creation. Like a loving parent, the God who created us wants for us the best, most satisfying life possible.
Christianity does not promise the ultimate in personal pleasure, a life oriented around hedonism. Rather, it promises an ordering of life -- a putting together, not a reduction -- so that we realize pleasures as they were intended by our Creator. Otherwise, we risk indulging to our own destruction, like an alcoholic who determines how much to drink. Abuses arise from regarding pleasure as an end in itself rather than a pointer to something more. "Perfect are the good desires You have given me," prayed Pascal; "Be their End, as You have been their Beginning."
-- Philip Yancey in “Rumors of Another World”
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