Into the Fire

It’s easy in the sense of putting words on a page to write sexual scenes. For Christians it’s loathsome because so much of what’s put on pages of literature can be obscene, defiling what God intended for good. Sexuality is not broadcast in Christian fiction. It’s not the focal point of romance novels nor does it get much mention unless there’s a rape, an unexpected pregnancy (usually a teen), the prospect of abortion, the topic of pornography, a reference to the sexual slave trade, prostitution, or some other kind of loose living.

Small children of both sexes run around under sprinklers or in their homes together without clothing. They know no shame until it’s time to learn it. The freedom of being naked is no longer free. Why? Because of sexuality and what it elicits in others.

Who remembers the awkward onset of puberty? Anyone recall being uber-aware of their changing bodies? And feeling like an alien around slightly older members of the opposite sex? Or was that just me? The sexual part of being comes stealth-like for some, is forced upon others, or casually lopes into existence like a playful colt or filly. It’s inescapable, and for most of us it arrives with hefty baggage thrown open to contain bursting insecurity and mounds of self-consciousness.

Why? The fall.

In the garden the first man and his woman had no need of garments because there was no guilt or shame. They belonged to each other for their pleasure and they worked together in harmony. After sin, their perception darkened. They looked at each other differently. Their sexuality no longer existed as a pure endeavor, a holy merging, but was tainted with all the evil thoughts foisted upon them by the enemy of their souls. And the battle for sexual purity in the lives and bedrooms of Christian couples remains to this day. The challenges to enjoy this act of love, to stay faithful to a wife or husband, still cause differences and arguments, separations and divorces. The act of love can easily become the act of lust, ruining faithfulness, creating double standards, and destroying people of both genders in its wake.

Few examine their sexuality. It is what it is we often think. Some base assessments on our bodies, how we appear, the weight we gained. Some gauge it on our ability to attract attention from the opposite sex and develop it accordingly or subdue it as best we can. We’re never free of it. We rate it. We hate it. We wish for it. We feign indifference to it. But it’s still there. We are sexual beings—at the simplest level it’s because we have a gender. At the most complex level we pervert it.

It’s hard for me to imagine there were never any hang-ups about sex. What a price was paid in this arena when the first man and his woman gave in to doubting God.

Sexual appeal . . . I can’t see writing romance and love stories without it being present. Ignoring it in attraction makes a work dishonest. We are what we are, and we remain sexual beings. Hot or cold in the world of sexuality doesn’t change our status in creation. It needn’t be emphasized or graphically presented to make its presence known, but pretending it doesn’t exist? Not in this world.

Father, I can’t pretend to understand your much higher ways. I just can’t do it. You’re more than this finite mind can imagine. Far, far more. I praise your majesty and infinite ability to be divine. Forgive me for my failures, Lord. There are so many of them. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.