Bothered

I've recently been thinking about something. Yeah, not an uncommon thing for me to do. I probably think too much as it is. Be that as it may, this topic really bothers me. Sex and society. When I think about what God intended relationships between a man and a women to be and compare that with what the world is telling us and even what I've done in my life, I feel sick. I just don't understand. Then again, maybe I understand more than I want to. I've had pretty messed up ideas about sex and women before. I pursued what I thought men should pursue only to find a lot of degeneration and selfishness. People pursuing "happiness" at all costs to themselves and the people around them. People continually giving themselves away because they somehow think that sex or pornography or being sexually attractive is going to fill some void in their life. I know I thought that way.

But even if someone doesn't believe in God, how can they look at the way sex is depicted in the Bible and claim it is not something good? Even if they think the Bible is full of it, how can they throw out the way it calls for men and women to treat each other as if it would hurt them?

1 in 4 women these days have been sexually molested in some way, shape, or form. 1 in 4. That means nearly 37 MILLION women in the US alone have been sexually molested. You know, at the very least when someone murders somebody the victim doesn't have to live with it. While the murder is demonstrating that they think the victim's life is worthless, at least it is over and they don't have to suffer on this earth anymore for it. Rape, on the other hand, tells a women the same thing in terms of her life being worthless, but she has to live out her life struggling to overcome that.

But more and more, we see things like this. And while I know the many good uses of it, the Internet might as well be a massive porn depository. And there's thousands of other examples: priests preying on young children, women teachers and their young male students, children becoming sexually active at younger and younger ages, and on and on and on.

Somehow many people think of it as freedom. They don't have to listen to the rules, forgetting all about the fact that many of the "rules" where only made for our own good. But more and more I have noticed in my old self and in many people I come into contact with that people aren't looking for freedom from rules or religion. They aren't looking to be anti-social or "fight the power." They are looking for love. Men, women, children; all looking for love and doing whatever they can to find it. Men think that they'll like themselves and be respected if women find them sexually attractive and are "good in the sack." Women seem to think that because a man is sleeping with them that he must love them and they turn to those fleeting moments of intimate connection whenever they want to feel reassured that they are beautiful and something to be desired.

But it is never enough. You can't fill up on porn. You can't sleep with enough people. You can't feed enough sexual desires to make it go away. You can't look enough, kiss enough, hold enough, pursue enough, get close enough, rape enough, pervert enough or feed every single sexual desire you have enough to make it stop. It is a hunger unlike anything else in this human existence.

But it can be stopped. People can find their validation is something good that will actually do something positive in their life. But only when they decide to get serious about change. I wish I could say it was easy. I had a conversation with a couple last Sunday about this very topic and I can say with confidence that it isn't an easy road to follow. But God can validate us unlike anything else can. He created us and we were designed to have a relationship with Him that will validate us completely. He isn't out to make a bunch of rules to ruin our lives. I wish I could make people understand that...