Let's rescue sex.

Let’s rescue sex.

I don’t remember how old I was when I decided to choose the world’s opinion of sex instead of the church’s opinion of sex. But it happened. The decisions I’ve made as an adult indicate that I did indeed cast my vote. A thousand times over and over, I have sided with the world’s interpretation of sex.

And I think it makes sense in a lot of ways.

The reason is that in so many different ways, the world does a better job explaining, advertising, and detailing the wonders of sex. (Just typing that sentence made me a little uncomfortable, in part because discomfort is one of the things we flavor the concept of sex with at church.)

The result is that to most of us, the world owns sex. You might not say that, you might think you don’t believe it, but most of the things we see everyday tell us differently. The world is who celebrates it, incorrectly sure, but it’s still a celebration. The world is who is open about it. The world is the one that makes a big deal about it.

But we don’t and that’s why it was easy as a kid to choose the world’s opinion of sex. As a teen, I was presented with a decision:

Choose the world’s definition which is wild, intoxicating, colorful, alive. Or choose your youth group’s definition of sex which is guilty and stifling and no PDA and quiet and vanilla and flat and waiting, waiting, so much waiting.

The decision was easy. I chose the world.

The real danger though is that I got it all wrong. I acted like God was the creator of the mountains and the oceans but not sex. I acted like he wired the human body but was surprised about the nuances of sex. I acted like the God that can infuse life and emotion and power into a worship experience couldn’t do the very same thing in dare I say sex.

I started to think today though, what if I’ve allowed the world to take sex ransom? What if sex is a hostage? A beautiful, perfect concept that was kidnapped long ago? What if sex is just waiting for people like you and me to go get it? To bring it back to the church. To bring it back to the bible. To bring it back to our marriages.

• Can you imagine if sex within marriage became so big and so real and so important that the world’s view of sex felt empty and hollow?
• Can you imagine if instead of reading a newspaper article about a minister caught with a prostitute you read an article about a minister leading some sort of holy sexual revolution?
• Can you imagine if one of the reasons people liked being Christians was because the sex was so good?

I don’t know about you, but I’m going on a rescue mission and it starts tonight. It starts with being honest about sex. It starts with being real about sex with my accountability partners. It starts with inviting God into my sex life, which kind of scares me. And eventually it’s going to continue with me telling my kids about sex in a way that is true.

What do you think? Are you up for rescuing sex?

This post goes well with:
God was surprised sex was fun.
Your dad is having sex, let's get drunk.