Command 6: the Sex Talk
We will come back to this topic sometime in the next few weeks. If you weren't there... There just wasn't enough time today to get to everything. I was able to lay some foundational thoughts on God's view of sex and adultery but did not get to dig into a single tough topic. So in review... God created sex and it was good! It is so much more than a physical act, it is emotional, it is spiritual. That is it in it's fullness. We looked at the Hebrew words for love... 1) Raiyah: Companionship- see you, the good and the bad, and love you 2) Ahava: Commitment - Love of the Will - I will never leave you 3) Dod: Intermingling of Souls - This is the sensual one. Only complete when Raiyah and Ahava are active. There is another word for sex when Raiyah and Ahava are not present... Adultery. I won't get into the stats here, other than to say we have a problem. There is an emptiness, an empty hunger that will never be filled when we are left only to the physical act. Soon, I'll let you know as soon as I do we will dig into the topics of Divorce, Pre-marital sex, living together, Homosexuality... etc. I would welcome your thoughts, challenges and anything else you think or wonder about any of these topics. What do you think?
I was watching tv tonight (oh, I know that may be my first problem) and no less than three instances in one hour did the topic come up of purity and saving yourself for marriage , with jokes of the 40-year old virgin and our contemporary society's stereotype that there must be something "not quite right" with you if haven't had sex.
So the personal challenge - I've really thought the whole idea of commitment and intermingling of souls is worth the wait however, with all of our culture's easy access to emptiness it makes it extremely tempting to fill the void.
Also, it really really irritates me when tv shows or movies have priests deliver the "your gift" speech. It always ends with people rolling their eyes and just perpetuates the stereotype that waiting for love and commitment before sex is archaic.
I imagine it takes a lot of work for a committed couple to feed the three levels above particularly when throwing dishes at each other but not leaving each other - yikes!
Also - maybe I'm just a sermon junkie sorta (I wander online all the time listening to stuff) I know not everyone has an extra 1/2 hour in their day but if you attended the early service you may want to listen to the recording of the late service - some of the stories I just didn't quite follow made a bit more sense.
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I can see how easy it is to just convince yourself something is okay. We need instant gratification and heaven help me, but thanks to shows like Sex in the City, my group of friends seems to think it's okay to just share all the details of whatever they are doing (including adultery) with "the girls night out group". So my challenge here is that quite clearly I'm concerned, and slightly judgemental, yet these are my friends so I do care about them. I've already decided that I'd talk to friends individually about my personal discomfort of these share sessions however honestly - it's been a challenge to know how to discuss the emptiness of what they are doing without sounding like such a fuddy-duddy. (I know that just sounds like a cop-out, whiny un-adult thing to say but sincerely I wish there was a way to counter-cultural acceptance without getting involved in the self-defeating attitude that you might not look cool if you bring it up.) (Comment this)