Flesh and Spirit

There's a tug-of-war between the flesh and the Spirit. Flesh tries to pull the spirit into it, envelop, suppress, and destroy it.
Desires, pain, fear, idle mind-wanderings, human needs--all pull us into the darkness of SELF.
We have all been lost in the SELF, and to some degree are still partially lost in it.  We "see through a glass darkly".  
Like a rocket ship that exerts tremendous energy to escape earth's gravity, we must exert tremendous energy to escape the FLESH. But, also like the rocket ship, the further we go, the lighter the downward pull.
The effort we make is to stay mindful of Emmanuel--God with us.  To pull everything we've got up into Christ-in-us--His magnanimous Love for us and in us--the Love that has overcome the world.
Our most supreme desire is to simply rest in Him who has overcome all flesh--the whole "world". In Him we do what we're supposed to do, think rightly, live peacefully, shining the Light of His Love into the world. In Him we are not deterred by tribulations or by the opinions of people. We simply love all of them, even our "enemies".
This Freedom to Love and Empowerment to Love is the fulfillment of all desire. It is like coming Home.  In Christ we are in eternity--no beginning, no end.  We have arrived at where we had always been, but had never been able to receive the blessing of it. Now we know the BLESSING.
We lie down in green pastures beside still waters. Our soul is restored.  We are no longer divided within ourselves.  We are AT-ONE through Jesus with God the Creator of the cosmos, the Giver and Sustainer of life, Who is still, even though we are at one with Him, transcendent and far beyond us. But we rest in our completeness in Him, and in the promise that He will bring us to completion. We can see the movement of our lives toward this completion, and we rest in the assurance of His promise.