Lust
Housemate Diagonally Above asked me over dinner yesterday, "Would you prefer to see girl on girl action or guy on guy action?" This during some kind of strange lesbian kissing scene in Big Brother. After some pressing I replied "girl on girl". And then he asked me,"Do girls have sexual urges?" He was either asking because he really wanted to know, or because he was trying to embarrass the prude out of me! I was very embarrassed but said "Yes". I wish I could be more honest without feeling so (er, for want of a better word) embarrassed!
Lust exists, exists, exists. Even for girls. And its portayal of temporal pleasure and ephemeral reward makes it one of the representations of the "money" Paul speaks of when he says, "Do not serve both God and money."
Even Christians lust, perhaps even more so sometimes than non-Christians. So what difference does being a Christian make? I think it's just the trust that God will be faithful to complete the work begun in me, even though I may not be very perfect in this area in my life, and the knowledge that if ever I fall, I can pick myself up and start afresh. If I didn't have this trust, I would probably just give up on myself and spiral deeper and deeper down the slippery slope.
Christians still struggle with lust, pornography, any sort of thing that seems to represent the world at its worst; you name it, Christians struggle with it. Every temptation or desire that comes my way is something that is common to everyone. The deepest darkest things that would never cross my lips are probably in the secret hearts of everyone else. So everything comes back to this question: What, then, makes a Christian different from anyone else? A Christian may not behave better than another. A Christian may not even in his secret heart be any purer than another. So how can I say that being a Christian is the solution, if it doesn't make any sort of difference to the way I behave?
I think that the difference lies in my attitude towards lust. Knowing that it exists in me, I know that I am no better than any other. And I cannot do anything about it on my own. I can't cut it out of myself. Were I a guy and should I castrate myself then it would still be there. But I know I can trust my God day by day to make me more like Him, and that is the only difference.
I wish I wasn't almost twenty one, that I didn't have to struggle with all these weird adult things! Let me go back to when I was sixteen, when the only things I had to worry about were the O levels and crushes on pimply bespectacled guys.....
Lust exists, exists, exists. Even for girls. And its portayal of temporal pleasure and ephemeral reward makes it one of the representations of the "money" Paul speaks of when he says, "Do not serve both God and money."
Even Christians lust, perhaps even more so sometimes than non-Christians. So what difference does being a Christian make? I think it's just the trust that God will be faithful to complete the work begun in me, even though I may not be very perfect in this area in my life, and the knowledge that if ever I fall, I can pick myself up and start afresh. If I didn't have this trust, I would probably just give up on myself and spiral deeper and deeper down the slippery slope.
Christians still struggle with lust, pornography, any sort of thing that seems to represent the world at its worst; you name it, Christians struggle with it. Every temptation or desire that comes my way is something that is common to everyone. The deepest darkest things that would never cross my lips are probably in the secret hearts of everyone else. So everything comes back to this question: What, then, makes a Christian different from anyone else? A Christian may not behave better than another. A Christian may not even in his secret heart be any purer than another. So how can I say that being a Christian is the solution, if it doesn't make any sort of difference to the way I behave?
I think that the difference lies in my attitude towards lust. Knowing that it exists in me, I know that I am no better than any other. And I cannot do anything about it on my own. I can't cut it out of myself. Were I a guy and should I castrate myself then it would still be there. But I know I can trust my God day by day to make me more like Him, and that is the only difference.
I wish I wasn't almost twenty one, that I didn't have to struggle with all these weird adult things! Let me go back to when I was sixteen, when the only things I had to worry about were the O levels and crushes on pimply bespectacled guys.....
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