Last night my wife and I watched the beginnings of the Winter Olympics in Beijing China. The opening ceremony is today but parts of the team skating competition started last night. These athletes have been skating probably since they learned to walk. They skated in pairs and they had been skating together for years. Why? Because it took years to perfect their sport.
Olympic skaters train three to six hours a day for about 10 years to become good enough to compete on the world stage. Only the best competes and only the best survives. It is grueling work demanding that you not only must have the talent to skate but the drive to become the best. And one’s drive is tested in the hours one spends practicing not before a crowd but in a rink with their coach and little to no recognition.
I have never had that kind of drive in any of the sports I played. Back in the 70’s my friends and I played sports because it was fun. We enjoyed being together on a team and competing against other teams. Practice time was a little bit…a couple of hours after classes to get us in shape, learn the plays, and develop our skills. We never won any real championships but we sure had a good time…and then consumed a large amount of beer.
Usually, within the arena in which competition is taking place, you have several different kinds of people. There are the athletes, the coaches, the friends, and the parents of the participants. Maybe a photographer for the yearbook and maybe…just maybe a scout from a college seeing if you have what it takes to go to the next level.
So, if being a Christian were a sport where would you fit in the scheme of things? One thing I know for sure is no matter how good or how bad you can play the game…you were drafted. The Bible says we are chosen by God before the creation of the world and predestined to be on the team and given a jersey…so we are supposed to be playing and every day we are the starter on our team.
And the first thing we ought to do every day is to go to the team meeting and meet with the Coach. The coach knows what lies ahead for us. We are often too nearsighted to see what is next and either rejoicing or mourning what happened in the last game. We might be injured and need some time to heal up or even badly beaten the last day and have very little heart to compete again the next day.
But…compete we must. However, we are not in a game…we are in a battle. Our opponent is not someone of the same shape, size, and strength that we are. They are evil and their intent is not just to knock us down but to wipe us out. They want us on the injured list so that we will not suit up at all for the next day.
Now that scenario is not fictitious…it is real. We have a daily enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he will devour. Jesus called him the father of lies and his arena where he pounds the crap out of us in pornville.
And it seems that no matter how many times we have stepped into his arena, thinking we have become strong enough to defeat him we get defeated by our own flesh and desires and find ourselves, once again, face down in the dirt and defeated.
So, let me ask you a serious question. Is this the way you want the rest of your life to be? Getting defeated multiple times a day by your never-ending hunger for sexual sin? Will there ever come a time when you are so sick of your sin and sick of yourself that you finally realize that you need some help? Do you just hope that the enemy will stop showing up and just let you rest on the sideline?
Sadly to say…he will not. He does not because he will not be satisfied with just defeating you another day. He does not just want you defeated…HE WANTS YOU DEAD!!! He will push us to the very limits of our existence filling us up with more and more of our sexual sin. He does this because he has his endgame in mind…and that is not only to kill you but to take out your family and friends as well.
He is the master of luring us out into the arena of sexual sin and getting us deeper into more revolting sexual sins. You will find yourself doing things you never believed you could do. But now that this is presented to you…you feel powerless to resist. And then, suddenly, while you are gorging yourself with what has become your latest low of lows…he flips on all the lights so that you are caught in these sins that your loved ones find repugnant.
Then he knows that he has you trapped and addicted. And were it not for the grace of God, the presence of His Holy Spirit in us, and a community of other brothers to help you…you will remain entangled in that web of sin from which you will not be able to escape.
When the lights are on and your sin is found out…it may or may not be the death of everything you hold dear. Some marriages blow up. Some marriages survive and grow stronger. Others enter a season of life that is miserable and painful and without having the strength or desire to do what it takes to heal…you will remain that way till death do you part.
If that is where you are…having been discovered and your sin revealed…I want you to know that I have been there as well. For probably two years at least living in the Twilight Zone where things are not as they seem and you feel your next step will be to hear the click of a landmine.
There are no feelings of peace and that everything will be ok. NO!!! Everything has not been OK…is not OK now…and may never be OK again. If you survive there will be scars reminding you of the pain and damage you have caused your loved ones and yourself.
There is a lot of work that will need to be done to not only unentangle you from your sexual brokenness…but perhaps to even save your marriage and your family. I wandered in that desert of insecurity having to live one day at a time and trusting God for my future. But I have…and so has He.
If you want help to work your way out of the pit into which you have fallen…you are going to need to ask for help. And that is why we are here…but you will have to let us know you want help.