Love And Desire

So I was getting my daily dose of Dallas as I was getting my oil changed yesterday, and I came across this refreshing and challenging insight:

And first, what exactly is love? It is will to good or "bene-volence." We love something or someone when we promote its good for its own sake. Love's contrary is malice, and it simple absence is indifference. Its normal accompaniment is delight, but a twisted soul may delight in evil and take no pleasure in good.

Love is not the same thing as desire, for I may desire something without even wishing it well, much less willing its good. I might desire a chocolate ice cream cone, for example. But I do not wish it well; I wish to eat it. This is the difference between lust (mere desire) and love, as between a man and a woman. Desire and love are, of course, compatible when desire is ruled by love; but most people today would, unfortunately, not even know the difference between them. Hence, in our world, love constantly falls prey to lust. That is a major part of the deep sickness of contemporary life.

Our human world as we find it is not like God, though it was intended to be. Love is not natural in our world, those desire or lust certainly is. 'The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,' the apostle said, is 'all that is in the world.' (1 John 2:16, PAR)

Pride is defined by desire, not love. It is, above all, the presumption that my desire should be fulfilled and that it is an injustice, a crying shame, and an injury if they are not.

Lust and pride all around us inevitably result in a world of fear. For they bring us into a world of little dictators; and the most likely thing is that each person will be used and abused by others, possibly destroyed, and at least not helped and cared for. Our families, which should be a refuge from such a world, often turn out to be places where victimization is at its worst. 'The dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence' (Psalm 74:20). The tender young are initiated into an adult world hardened in evil. A baby is not even safe from its mother while in her womb. 'And he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey' (Isaiah 59:15).

Injury brings pain and loss, then fear and anger, which mingle with resentment and contempt and settle into postures of coldness and malice, with brutal feelings that drain the body of health and strength and shatter social well-being. - Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart.