Roosh V - Daryush Valizadeh - 5 Things Modern People Love More Than God

Sept. 29, 2022 - Roosh V - Daryush Valizadeh

39:38

5 Things Modern People Love More Than God

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	How do I answer this?
	So this past year, I realized that I may love food more than God.
	That's what happened this past Lent, a time when we commemorate our Lord who rose from the dead, who opened the gates for us to eternal life.
	But I was instead thinking of all the foods I was going to eat on Pasca night.
	What was I going to go for first?
	The cheeses or the meats or the ice cream, the pizzas, the cakes.
	During Lent, I would fantasize continually about the foods, but not so much about what the Lord did for us.
	Instead, I would think about how much I would enjoy those foods after abstaining for so long.
	Unfortunately, I look forward more to eating than to pray.
	I look forward more to eating than confessing my sins more than the liturgy itself.
	The day before a long fast begins, I eat like a pig because of my precious dairy and my precious meat.
	And then after a fast, I eat like a pig again, sometimes besides a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.
	Is my craving for earthly food stronger than heavenly food?
	St. John of Kronstadt, an early 20th century Russian saint, said, I wish to detach myself from earthly things, to be abstinent in food and drink, but when I see pleasant food and drink and sit down like a slave, I am taken a willing captive by my belly, and I easily allow myself to eat and drink more than my nature requires.
	Who will heal me then?
	Jesus Christ alone.
	Saint Paisios of Mount Athos, have you heard of him before?
	He reposed in 1994, one of a great recent saints from Greece said, the desire for good food is a trap of the evil one.
	Whoever does not get rid of this desire is caught by the enemy's hook and is fried in his own fat by his burning flesh.
	On the contrary, the desire for spiritual nourishment takes the heart away from earthly things and raises the soul to heaven where it tastes the food of angels.
	Upon repentance, many of us in this room have cut off obvious sins, a good thing.
	But what are we all still irrationally attached to through our thoughts and actions?
	Satan is using these attachments against us, and the Antichrist, if we're alive to see him, will certainly use it against you so that you take the mark of the beast and lose your soul.
	Now, is this talk only going to be about food?
	I wish, but no.
	Besides food, what are the things that are distancing you from God and that you may love more than God himself?
	For me, there are four other things that are competing for my love of God, things that I continually stumble with, and I'd like to talk about them.
	My words may convict you a little bit, but more so, this is to convict myself, so that all that I look forward to while in this body is that which is holy, not earthly, so that I learn to love God more than anything else in this world.
	Do you love music more than you love God?
	One question I want to ask: does anyone here drive their cars in complete silence?
	No music, no podcasts.
	Okay, so maybe 20% of you.
	Most of us put on some kind of background noise.
	If not music, then podcasts or talk radio.
	I sure put on a lot of Dr. Jones' interviews.
	Otherwise, we feel bored, uncomfortable, even lonely.
	Why?
	Because we have trained our souls not to be alone with itself.
	We've made it addicted to noise and chatter.
	When I was younger, I had an expensive sound system in my car with the sub-woofer that made very obnoxious bass.
	And does anyone want to guess what type of music I would usually play?
	Gay disco.
	Gay disco.
	House.
	So why so loud?
	Why did I play this music so loud?
	To block thoughts of my conscience from reminding me of all the sins I should not be doing to block out the voice of God.
	Recorded music is relatively new.
	Before 1895, when the radio was invented, it was rare to listen to recorded music.
	If you wanted to, it had to be live.
	But now, most of us here probably have the app Spotify.
	This app has 80 million songs.
	And if you wanted to listen to all of those songs back to back, it would take you 500 years.
	What kinds of songs are those?
	Are they Christian songs and hymns?
	The most listened-to songs on Spotify and other apps are modern and vehemently opposed to the commandments of Christ.
	I took a look at what was the top song as of a couple of weeks ago, and it was called Super Freaky Girl by Nikki Minaj.
	I hope you don't know of that song.
	There is not a snippet of the lyric that I can even share with you.
	It's that foul.
	Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, understood the power of music.
	He said, For the commercial propagandists, as for his colleagues in the fields of politics and religion, music possesses an advantage.
	Nonsense, which it would be shameful for a reasonable being to write, speak, or hear spoken, can be sung or listened to by that same rational being with pleasure and even with a kind of intellectual conviction.
	Can we learn to separate the pleasure of singing or of listening to songs from the all-too-human tendency to believe in the propaganda which the song is putting over?
	Catholic writer Dr. E. Michael Jones said the following in his excellent book, The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit.
	Rock and roll itself was Negro slang for sexual intercourse.
	Rock and roll, according to Spitz, was meant to shake foundations.
	It was musical terrorism, a revolutionary attention-grabbing sound.
	Everybody was determined to imitate Bob Dylan's political amalgamation of revolutionary lyrics and Dionysian Negro music.
	I've always wanted to use the word Negro in a speech.
	Thank you, Dr. Jones.
	What did the Orthodox saints say about music?
	Saint Theophon Dereculus, a strict ascetic from Russia who died in 1894, said, This is the law.
	Abandon everything that is dangerous to the new life in Christ.
	Whatever ignites passions, brings vanity and extinguishes spirit.
	And how many such things there are?
	Let the measure of this be each person's heart, sincerely seeking salvation without deceit and not only for show.
	Now is the time to cease from all theaters, balls, dances, music, singing, travels, strolls, acquaintances, jokes, sarcasm, laughter, and idle time.
	This is a hard saying for us who revolve our lives around things like jokes and idle time, but I believe he's correct in that they can easily separate us from God.
	Saint John of Kronstadt said, Satan incites us to find pleasure in food, drink, dress, concerts of worldly music, theaters, jokes, idle talk, and wordplay.
	But the true servant of God trusts in his Lord always and in everything, in the common father and provider of all, accomplishing everything and everyone.
	Even if you make the choice not to listen to music wherever you go, you're still bombarded by it on the streets and in the shops and from other people's cars.
	Father Seraphim Rose, who reposed 40 years ago, said, You go into a supermarket and you're subjected to music.
	You go out in the street and you're subjected to the art, the buildings, the billboards, everything in the streets is the art of our times.
	And therefore, since one has to be subjected to that, it's better to be subjected to good, refined art than the barbarism which exists today.
	His comment was made in the 1970s concerning what I'm guessing was rock and roll.
	He wasn't talking about super freaky girl or the utter filth and barbarism that is popular today.
	Archbishop Baberke, the abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, who reposed in 1976, said, All of modern entertainment acts like cocaine and alcohol.
	Contemporary entertainment puts spiritual life to sleep in man, paralyzes spiritual impulses, and suppresses the voice of the conscious and of moral norms.
	Little by little, a person descends from the natural to gross carnality, becoming like a body without a soul.
	That was me in my car listening to gay disco music, my body inflamed with movement and dopamine, while I was dead to God for much of my adult life.
	Most music distracts you, clouds your thinking, inflames your passions, helps you achieve all manner of sin, and removes the thoughts of gods in heaven from your mind.
	This is why it is played everywhere at all times, and it is usually free.
	I also think that music can act like a biological drug.
	Earlier this year, I had gone on a music diet for some time, but one night I felt the strong temptation to listen to one certain song.
	Does anyone want to guess what that song was?
	The song was Somebody I Used to Know by Gault Ye.
	One-hit wonder from I think 2012.
	I played this song once, then again, then at least 10 times.
	I felt a physical high, an energetic boost, and I started to feel the urge to drink alcohol.
	I was in the mood to party.
	Thankfully, I did not, but it was much harder to sleep that night because of the energy that I did have.
	If you want to see the power of music over you, simply abstain from a couple months and then partake.
	You will see.
	Do you love the internet more than God?
	Last month, my internet went out at the end of the day.
	I didn't need it.
	All my day's work was completely done.
	But by hour three of no internet, I was getting anxious.
	Where is my internet?
	I need the internet.
	Something may be happening in the world.
	I need to know.
	In this anxious state, I called the cable company and was on hold for a long time.
	But while on hold, I understood here was yet another addiction that I've levied upon my soul.
	Here's a headline from the New York Post: Baby's first word was Alexa.
	Not mom or dad, but the activation word of a spying device.
	A study I found stated that people on average use their phones for three hours a day.
	That seems kind of low.
	And interact with it 60 times.
	It's our pacifier now, a perverse maternal bosom that makes us feel secure, safe, entertained, knowledgeable, useful, and comfortable, all while providing spikes of dopamine to smooth out idle time, slothful moments, and rough patches of our day.
	The smartphone is a tool we've turned into an oracle, a pulsating magical orb that draws us to its light 24 hours a day.
	Did you know that there are people here, well, hopefully not here, but people out there who sleep with their smartphones on their bed?
	Does anyone you know sleep with their Bibles on their bed?
	The psalter, a prayer robe, a wooden cross at least.
	You may be called weird if you did that, but we live in a culture where it's okay to do it with your phone.
	All the knowledge in the world at the tips of our fingers, available at 5G, lightning fast, cancer-causing speeds.
	And yet, mankind is the dumbest it's ever been and perhaps most faithless.
	Because when given the choice, our fallen nature doesn't choose knowledge or faith.
	We choose gossip, drama, commotion, scandal, and sex.
	It's obvious that the internet is making a scattered brain and constantly distracted to serve what is holy.
	Archbishop of Verici also said, why is distraction so harmful?
	It is quite obvious.
	A distracted person is not capable of being vigilant in regard to himself.
	He is constantly preoccupied with things outside of himself.
	How can he observe his own heart when the main object of his attention is not his inner life, but the events of the outside world?
	He is not concerned with reducing the influx of external impressions, but on the contrary, lives entirely for those external impressions.
	His inner life interests him little or not at all.
	His greatest interest is the external life, the life of the surrounding world, and thus he gives free reign to his senses.
	To see, hear, smell, feel, and taste everything is what he perceives as the meaning and purpose of his life.
	His soul is like an easily accessible highway.
	A whirlwind of impressions follow one after another as in a kaleidoscope, and he completely immerses himself in the thoughts, feelings, and desires that they generate.
	How can he monitor his heart and guide it from pollution by the vileness and crudity of this world which lies in evil?
	I would guess that if you use the Internet for more than a few hours a day, like me, your prayer is full of nonstop distraction.
	Such prayer is actually an interruption to your internet addiction.
	When you have consented to digital interference, I doubt the demons have to do much to trip you up.
	Ultimately, distraction draws us away from God.
	This is a fact and perhaps one of the first things you learn spiritually.
	If we reduce distractions, simplify our lives, make it less filled with gadgets and electronics, we will have a stronger relationship with God.
	We will seek him out in prayer and contemplation instead of calling the cable company for precious internet to catch up on the dumb news.
	Technology was supposed to make our lives easier, but we've taken the extra time it has allowed us to fill our day with complex information and digital junk, flashing lights and robotic noises.
	And now we may be living in a world where the name Alexa is said more times per day than Jesus Christ.
	I'm sure there are many saints that you venerate, but if they succumb to the internet, would they still have been a saint?
	Would they have produced the sayings and writings that nourish your soul?
	Or would they have been too busy with their cameras set up to do a live stream about politics and transgenders like I have done so many times in the past?
	Saint Ignatius Bryanchaninov, a Russian saint who reposed in 1867, said, Like a butterfly flutters from one flower to another, so a distracted person moves from one earthly pleasure to another, from one vain care to another.
	A distracted person is like a house without doors and locks.
	No treasure can be kept in such a house.
	It is open for thieves and harlots.
	The internet is a tool that I may be too immature to use wisely, maybe also you as well.
	We can humble ourselves and admit that we can't control our usage.
	Your fallen flesh does not know how to moderate what Satan is using as a weapon against our faith.
	The internet is dangerous.
	It's like putting a 24-hour candy store in the bedroom closet of a child.
	Place limits by starting small.
	Start using airplane mode for one hour a day, maybe two, then longer.
	Maybe no internet in the morning till after you pray.
	Maybe no internet in the evening till after you pray in the evening, and so on.
	Otherwise, if you let these digital distractions take over, it will be very difficult to experience pure communion with God.
	Do you love being attractive to the opposite sex more than you love God?
	Think in your past, has someone of the opposite sex ever called you cute, pretty, handsome, beautiful, or even hot?
	We immediately feel good when being complimented, even experiencing a rush.
	We feel special like a somebody and crave it to happen again and again.
	What a strong hint that that's feeding our flesh and not our soul.
	Saint Nicodemus, the Haggarite, a Greek saint, said, People praise you for your beauty, but your true charms are hidden beneath your exterior, just as manure is hidden by snow in the winter.
	Your external beauty is short-lived like snow, and in the end, when a man is dead, he shall inherit creeping things, beasts, and worms.
	If you open any tomb, you will be amazed at the falseness of the glory of this world, and that such glory, despite the fact that it is nothing, is so greatly desired in the eyes of foolish people.
	Ouch.
	I used to deeply care about how I looked.
	In my delusion, I was proud that women got enjoyment from my bodily appearance.
	They valued me for my external mostly.
	I valued them for their external.
	And surprise, I had a never-ending series of loveless, sinful relationships filled with pride and anger.
	Shallow, passionate desire leads to shallow, sinful outcomes.
	Why were all my relationships failing?
	What a mystery.
	Saint John of Kronstadt says, It is not wisdom, oh, excuse me, it is wisdom not to be charmed by the beauty of a person, but to respect in all, whether they be handsome or ugly, the beauty of the image of God, which is present equally in all.
	If you look at someone of the opposite sex and immediately think, wow, or ooh, maybe you should turn 180 degrees and run away.
	That is what I do.
	With such a person, your passions are already inflamed.
	How can you discern someone to be your wife or husband, which turns you on in such an instant way?
	How can someone discern if you're a good match if you inflame their lusts by looking exceedingly attractive according to what the culture makers dictate?
	Do you really want to marry someone who sees your main value in the physical to solve this problem?
	I try to appear mediocre on purpose.
	And by mediocre, I mean not fully optimized.
	To not look my best.
	Sorry, groipers and suits.
	To not have bulging biceps and an Instagram-ready continence.
	To be nothing special when it comes to looks, not attract attention from the opposite sex, and look merely normal.
	Clergy in the Orthodox Church grow out their hair and beard, but many don't have beard genes like me, so their beards may look off.
	And yet, these men often have a very faithful wife with four, five, six children, and sometimes more than that.
	These men wouldn't get many matches on Tinder, if any, but they are serving God's will to the utmost.
	I have been complimented by many attractive European women on my looks, but I have zero children, no ortho wife.
	Internal beauty is hard to develop.
	It takes many years, if not a lifetime, laboring to clean off the dirt and grime from the godly image you were made in, while external beauty can be purchased or quickly learned through YouTube tutorials.
	Most people focus their entire lives on external beauty, as the inside atrophies and rots, turning into sludge.
	The irony is that sublime internal beauty is available to anyone, a gift from Christ himself, but you must humble yourself, follow his commandments, and love him more than anything else.
	External beauty is more a transaction where often you're paying with your soul.
	Saint Macarius of Egypt says, The sight of an earthly king is an object of desire to all worldly men, so that everyone who sojourns in the capital city desires to catch even a glimpse of his beauty and the magnificence of his apparel, the glory of his purple and beauty of his various pearls, the comeliness of his diadem, and the impressive retinue of dignitaries attending him.
	But spiritual men think nothing of all this because they have had the experience of another glory, which is heavenly and incorporeal.
	They have been smitten with another ineffitable beauty and have interest in another wealth.
	They have felt grace in the inward man and are partakers of another spirit.
	When I was a total idiot in the past, now I'm just a normal idiot, I taught men to optimize and maximize their appearance to meet women, to look really good looking.
	I did them a disservice.
	The dates they got were with women who valued the external, whose eyes were always looking to be pleased.
	Is it possible to comport ourselves with faith and develop inner beauty that attracts someone else who also values inner beauty?
	Is it possible that when we meet someone, we don't form an immediate snap judgment based on externals and instead discern what is on the inside?
	And I think so.
	Saint Macarius also said, Christians have a glory and a beauty and a heavenly wealth which is beyond words, and it is one with pain and sweat and trials and many conflicts and all by the grace of God.
	Do you love comfort and convenience more than God?
	A few months ago, my Uber came, but the driver refused to drive me because I chose not to wear a face mask.
	Oh, well, I'll get another Uber, I thought.
	Then instantly, there was a screen in my Uber app saying that I must wear the face mask or I'll be banned.
	Then it told me to confirm, to click this button saying that I was indeed wearing a face mask.
	So what did I do as an Orthodox Christian?
	I lied.
	I said that I was wearing one when I was not.
	And why did I lie?
	Because I did not want to walk three measly miles.
	Lying is a sin, granted it was in an app, but I chose to lie instead of endure a little bit of inconvenience to move my lazy legs.
	St. John of Kronstadt says, Unfortunate is he who immoderately loves the comforts of life and has surrounded himself with all possible comforts.
	He will shun every discomfort.
	He will become soft and unaccustomed to patience.
	But the life of the Christian is all discomfort, a narrow, rough way, a cross requiring discomfort and great patience.
	Do not seek for all sorts of comforts in your home and surroundings.
	Do not love the comforts of this world.
	Instead, love Christ, the bearer of the cross.
	One sort of business that has groomed us for convenience is the supermarket.
	Thousands of different foods in one place from all over the world, all fresh and fairly priced, at least up until the past year.
	And different kinds of food available all year round.
	The modern supermarket is relatively new, but dare I say that most of us cannot live without it.
	Now, I've moved out of the Washington, D.C. area, and I now live near two fruit stands, many farmers, and a farmer's market.
	To get all that I need from them, I have to make three or four stops, or I can go to Walmart.
	I chose Walmart.
	I chose dog food over locally grown food because I wanted the easy, convenient way.
	I chose to support a global corporation instead of my neighbor because it allows me to maximize my comfort.
	The problem with convenience is death by a thousand cuts.
	I don't see an immediate sin with shopping at Walmart or preferring to drive everywhere instead of walk or take a bike, but those who control the conveniences can then use them against you.
	Imagine a world where, in order to buy food, you're told to read a statement created by Richard Dawkins saying that God doesn't exist.
	Or in order to get an Uber or take the subway, you're told to renounce Christ.
	You probably instantly wake up and say no without hesitation.
	But more subtle methods to kill your faith are being beta tested as we speak.
	There will be no mention of God, but if you choose the conveniences again and again, if you choose to get the vax or to isolate yourself from your neighbor whom you were commanded to love, if you compromise, God will gradually be squeezed out of your life and you will have a faith that is lukewarm.
	Your soul will be killed if you make deals with the devil so that your adored conveniences are not removed.
	Right now, you may not be making any compromises, but Satan will soon turn the heat up.
	He will hit you with something you love in this world.
	And what options he has with me, with all the modern conveniences I am attached to.
	If you can't say no to being inconvenienced now, if you can't jump over very small hoops when Uber demands it and walk three miles, what will you do when you're being denied food, gasoline, or the right to have a job?
	Will you suddenly then have strength on the big things after consenting to a hundred small things and weakening your faith imperceptibly and sometimes perceptibly in the process?
	How do we prepare for when the rug will be pulled out from under us in a bigger way than we've seen so far?
	Church fathers say the answer lies in self-denial.
	Father Seraphim Rose denied himself when he used an ancient type setter that multiplied his labors and actually disfigured him.
	Here's a quote from his biography.
	In 1971, Eugene, his worldly name, smashed and broke one of his fingers on the printing press, requiring him to go to a doctor and have it stitched.
	The finger later became infected and the injury left him permanently disfigured.
	On another occasion, Gleb, Father Herman, too broke a finger on the press, leaving him also disfigured for life.
	Mechanical problems with the printing press tested the brother's patience to the limit.
	When Gleb would start his lamentations, however, Eugene would cut them off at once by saying, you want to go back to the world.
	Is that what you want?
	At other times, he would ask, do you want your reward now or in heaven?
	Gleb would reply, in heaven, of course.
	But can't I have a little of it now?
	At this, Eugene would only shake his head.
	It's now or then.
	Take your pick.
	Would Father Seraphim sympathize with me for lying not to walk three miles?
	Would he sympathize with you for making compromises in exchange for comfort?
	Saint Theophon says, outwardly treat your flesh with a sort of hatred, keeping it in cold and roughness so that it has no softness or comfort.
	I have since forced myself to depend less on Walmart through great pain and buy more locally produced goods.
	I have deliberately inconvenienced myself by making multiple trips.
	This place for eggs, this place for fruit, this place for a cantaloupe.
	I even have to, now when I get eggs, I have to make a phone call.
	Because I know that if I can't do this now, I may choose to do the will of Satan in the future, not directly, but in a way that gravely damages my faith.
	And from this point on, I declare for myself no new conveniences, no new inventions, or newfangled modern junk, no new ways to save time.
	My life is already easy enough.
	So far I've talked about attachments we have to food, music, internet, vanity, and comfort.
	Are there some other things that you may love more than God?
	Well, let me ask you, can you get through the day without taking a psychoactive substance like caffeine, alcohol, or meth?
	Many people in our times are using drugs to help them escape from God-given reality as a shortcut to feel specific states of mind and body.
	Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov says, did the alcoholic know when he drank his first shot that he was starting on the path to suicide?
	For suicide is exactly what this terrible habit is, since it destroys both the body and the soul.
	How about money?
	Do you love money more than God?
	Do you have enough money saved up where you don't have to depend on God every day for every piece of bread you eat?
	I don't have to depend directly on God for my daily bread.
	I therefore need him less than those Christians in poverty who don't know where their next meal is coming from.
	St. Macarius of Egypt said, even in distressful circumstances, Christians are not vexed or grieved.
	If they are tried by poverty or suffering, they should not be surprised, but rather take pleasure in poverty and reckon it as wealth, and fasting as feasting and dishonor and obscurity as glory.
	On the other hand, if they should fall into circumstances which in this life are glorious, which incline them to worldly ease or wealth or glory or luxury, they ought not to take pleasure in these things, but to shun them as they would shun fire.
	How about health?
	Do you love your physical health more than God?
	Are you obsessed like me of not eating soybean oil because you're scared it will cause inflammation in your body?
	Is that the point of life not to get sick so we never have to pray to God for healing?
	Or are you depending more on modern medicine than to pray?
	St. John of Kronstadt says, bear your illness bravely and do not merely despair, but on the contrary, rejoice if you can in your illness.
	You ask me what cause there can be for joy when you are racked with pain.
	Rejoice that the Lord has sent you this temporary chastisement to cleanse your soul of sins.
	For whom the Lord loves, he chastens.
	Rejoice that you are no longer gratifying those passions which you would have gratified had you been in good health.
	Rejoice that you are bearing the cross of sickness and that therefore you are treading the narrow and sorrowful way leading to the kingdom of heaven.
	Do you love the fantasies of your own mind than you love God?
	Are you in la-la land for a good part of the day, making yourself feel good with all the wonderful things that are going to happen to you in the future?
	Are you getting yourself high with your own brain by creating a make-believe world?
	Metropolitan Hierotheus of Naphtos says, The more spiritually sick a person is, the more he is dominated by all kinds of fantasy and imagination.
	The healthier he is spiritually, the freer he is from fantasies and imaginings.
	Even what are referred to nowadays as psychological problems are produced and retained in our souls by fantasies.
	The more we are freed from their oppression, the more we are healed from various psychological problems.
	This is why St. John Cassian, the Roman, writes that a sign that someone has acquired the virtue of holiness and chastity is that his soul pays no attention at all to imagination or fantasy, even when asleep.
	So do I really love food more than God?
	Do I get more pleasure from the song somebody I used to love than from an Orthodox hymn?
	Do I look forward more to using the internet than praying to God?
	Do I prefer getting the attention of a beautiful woman more than the intercessions of a saint?
	And do I count more on Walmart to feed me than God himself?
	I must take a surgeon's scalpel to my life and ask myself, what am I doing that is distracting me and distancing me from God?
	What is keeping me attached to this temporary world?
	And I must start working on severing that attachment with zeal and piety.
	Apostle John wrote in 1 John, Do not love the world or the things in the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
	I hope from my talk today you are able to recognize how utterly attached we are to things of this world, how we are quick to make an idol of gadgets, low-grade internet content, compliments, and other forms of nonsense.
	It's a struggle to get rid of these attachments, but it's what we're called to do.
	Food is not my God, and neither is the creation.
	I must worship the Creator above all creation.
	And to achieve that aim, I must start denying myself today.
	Aim to drink one less cup of coffee each day.
	Turn off the music for one commute each week.
	Turn off your internet router at a certain time.
	Rely on a Christian neighbor for a specific need instead of a secular corporation.
	And when you're sick, first call God instead of the doctor.
	And of course, look mediocre on purpose, just like me.
	Saint John of Kronstadt says, As quickly as the pleasure of eating and drinking passes away for those sitting at a table dining, so shall the present life, when all its pleasures, joys, sorrows, and sicknesses, also pass away.
	It's like morning dew vanishing at the appearance of the sun.
	Therefore, the Christian who is called to a heavenly country, who is only a stranger and sojourner upon earth, should not attach his heart to anything earthly, but should cling to God alone, the source of life, our resurrection, and life eternal.
	We are not going to free ourselves from the modern world in one step.
	No, we're going to get there slowly, slowly, and it will take the rest of our lives.
	It will involve one battle at a time, one struggle at a time.
	And then when we die, if we serve God's will, we will leave this corrupt place and be ushered into the heavenly kingdom for all time to worship the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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