the animal and the angel

there exists in me two promptings:

one of them is directed toward animalistic desires, and though i have indulged in many things that look, taste, smell, and feel desirable, I have found no satisfaction in them. There is only more hunting to be done in order to sate my thirst for pleasure.

the other is prone to avoid animalistic pleasures at all cost, and although this may seem right and nobel, it is nonetheless unpleasing to me and my creator. as humans we were made to experience and enjoy the world around us.

i think i understand more clearly how to balance these two inner forces.

i was reading rob bell's novel, sex god. he talks about how the bible approaches this issue:

"in the creation poem that begins the bible, people are created AFTER animals. and from the rest of scripture, we learn that people were also created after angels. the order here is significant. the movement in creation is away from tohu va vohu (wild and waste OR formless and void) toward greater and greater harmony and order and beauty...how we live matters because god made us human. which means we aren't angels. and we aren't animals."

i desire to exist somewhere in between the wide range of these two extremes.

a|A