The Paradox Of Pleasure Series

Alexander Selkirk was one of those men who always had to learn

the hard way. The records of his church in Scotland show that he

was disciplined several times for causing trouble in the church. In

May of 1703 he said good-bye to all that, and at age 27 went off to

sea. He tried to run things on the ship as he did church, and he got

into a furious argument with the Captain. They were anchored off a

small island four hundred miles from Chile. Alexander got so mad

he packed up his possessions and went ashore. "You don't dare sail

without me," he shouted to the Captain. The Captain was not

impressed with his conviction, and gave the order to sail. Poor

Alexander could not believe it. He thought he was indispensable.

He was wadeing out up to his arm pits pleading for the Captain to

forgive him, but the Captain was as stubborn as he was, and he

sailed away, never to return.

Fortunately for Alexander the island had been inhabited by Jon

Fernandez two centuries earlier, and he had left some goats on the

island. These gave him food and skins. For four years and four

months he depended on them for survival. When he was finally

rescued, he could hardly remember how to talk. When he got back

to England he was a sensation, and several books were written about

him. The most famous was fiction, but it used his experience as a

model. The book was Robinson Crusoe.

That was a tough way to learn to keep his mouth shut. It is so

hard not to do something, or say something foolish or destructive

when you are angry. Even great men often have to learn the hard

way that loss of temper can be costly. Xerxes was the ruler of the

Persian Empire, he could have anything he pleased, but he lost his

wife, whom he truly treasured, because of his anger. Xerxes had a

reputation for losing his temper when he could not have his own

way. He once wanted to cross the waters of the hellespont, but it

was so rough his troops could not build a bridge. He got so angry he

took chains to the water, and he began to flog it. Like most temper

tantrums, it was not very effective.

It is so hard to play God when nature and others will not

cooperate. The water would not stop for him, and his wife would

not start for him, and he blew his stack. And why shouldn't he? He

was the most powerful man in the world, and why should he not get

angry for the same reason the rest of us get angry? Why do we get

angry? Primarily because something or someone has spoiled our

pleasure. We are not different from King Xerxes. He had his heart

set on seeing all his noble leaders gape in envy as he revealed the

beauty of his wife to them. Half the joy of possessing something is in

showing it to those who don't. Vashti had the audacity to rob him of

this pleasure. He blazed with anger within, because she would not

grant his whim.

If you examine your own life, you will discover that most of your

anger is based on the hindrance of your pleasure. You have plans,

and somebody does not cooperate, and the pleasure you hope for is

lost, and you are angry. Children cry most often because they can't

have their own way. Somebody is always hindering them from

having their pleasure. They want to play with the new camera you

just bought, and you insist it is not a toy, and there heart is broken.

They want to run barefoot in a junk infested lot, and you deny them

of their pleasure. On and on goes the list of pleasures a child desires

that are constantly being hindered by parents, who get no pleasure

out of picking up pieces of a two hundred dollar camera, and

rushing to the emergency room for stitches.

What we see then, is that from the beginning, life is a battle to see

whose pleasures are met, and whose are denied. Striving for

pleasure is a far more powerful factor in all of our lives then we

realize. Because we do not examine our lives from the perspective of

the pleasure motive, we look on the events of the book of Esther with

some degree of shock.It is scandalous that every beautiful virgin in

the empire was to be made available to the king, to meet his demand

for pleasure. Keep in mind, he is the most powerful man in the

world. The whole book revolves around his pleasure. What pleases

him determines the life or death of every human being of his time. If