After watching the first five minutes of the 5 o’clock news,
though, I started thinking that life in other places may be suddenly ABnormal for
many other people tonight.
So we’re watching tv and Phil tells me to turn the channel to
see if a recent Facebook news post would be featured, and sure enough, there it
was: 15 men and women were arrested
today during a prostitution sting at a local hotel. What really captured my attention was that
the one mug shot shown on the newscast was that of a man who is a teacher and
assistant coach at the high school where my son attended football camp—where some
of my friends’ children are students—where people I know are employed.
The newscast’s website showed the mug shots of the other
people who were arrested in the sting, and several of them look like people who
you might see at work, the bank, grocery store, or even at church. Probably, a
few of them have families—children, spouses, parents—who are having a very ABnormal
evening now that their loved ones have been caught and publicly exposed as a
participants in a particularly (in my opinion) embarrassing criminal activity. I’m
thinking that life will never be the same for most of those involved in or
affected by today’s prostitution sting.
So I’m wondering what could’ve happened
or what choices were made
or what habits were formed that set those 15 people on a path
that led to being arrested for prostitution or for solicitation of prostitution….
If you’ve spent any time at all reading my older blog posts,
you know that I use this site for sharing family happenings, pictures, and random
thoughts, and I have even used this blog as a “journal” of sorts. I make no claims of expertise on ANY subject
area, so keep in mind that I’m not trying to prove a point, win an argument, or
pick a fight. I’m just “thinking out
loud” but not actually out loud, unless YOU’RE reading my thoughts out loud.
Anywho.
How does that happen, though?
The committing of acts that lead to the committing of crimes that lead
to the whole thing of getting caught and being put on television and on the WWW
for God (who already knew) and now for EVERYBODY ELSE to see?
I think it’s just like Jesus’ little brother James said: each
one of us can be drawn away, enticed, and even baited by our own desires or lusts.
Then, those desires can give birth to sin which can grow to full
maturity and then leads to death (See James 1:14-15).
I think it’s the little things that turn into bigger things
that become habits that lead to addictions that end up destroying us…. I cannot
speak for those souls who were featured on the news tonight, and I’m not trying
to explain why they did what they did.
I know I’m rambling here, but the issue that I automatically
think of in any instance of sexual misconduct is the issue of pornography, and
pornography, I believe, is one of the most addictive, destructive, and DEADLY
forms of evil that has infiltrated our culture, churches, homes, heads, and
hearts.
Pornographic images slither in like a serpent and bite with a
venom that may either immediately or eventually ruin its victim…it’s different
for everyone, but the results are devastating.
Today’s news broadcast has me thinking about some
conversations and confessions that I’ve heard and been a part of over the past
few years…. Pornography has crept into many of our lives in sometimes subtle
and oftentimes OBVIOUS ways, and we don’t always recognize its presence. Or if we do recognize its presence, we may
not immediately recognize its power or its potential for destroying our lives.
It may have started with look at a magazine at a friend’s
house.
Or knowledge learned from someone who had NO business sharing
that knowledge.
Or the discovery of erotic scenes in “romance novels.”
Or an unsolicited image that popped up while you were minding
your own business on the www.
Or websites that you visited for “informational purposes.”
Or risqué commercials or television shows or movies that no
one knew you saw.
Or the Devil knows what else.
I know one young person who saw his first glimpse of porn in
his middle school bathroom; someone had stuffed a pornographic picture into the
paper towel dispenser, and he became an innocent victim who later became a
willing participant….
You may think I’m overreacting here, but I’ve heard so many
stories—from people I’ve never met and from some who I know personally—of how
one thing leads to another. And another. Then another. And sometimes, things happen that were never
supposed to happen. Hearts get
broken. Relationships are ruined. Marriages are ended. Reputations are destroyed.
And mug shots could even be featured on the evening news.
Honestly, any and every
addiction we have has the same potential to destroy us…. It usually begins
with a desire that starts small but then becomes enormous—the thing that we
fail to master becomes our master…. it isn’t just porn….it could be anything.
The thing
that we fail to master becomes our master….
We don’t have to be porn addicts to have issues,
friends. If we’re thinking, breathing,
and existing on planet earth, we can have issues. Some may be small, quirky, or cute,
even. Like having to eat M&M’s one
color at a time. But other issues…
…..like wanting and depending upon too much of anything or anyone for
satisfaction or comfort…..
our “issues” can be devastating if they become our masters.
God help us.
That’s the answer.
GOD can help us. Really.
We weren’t created to be slaves to our desires. We were made for more.
I’m calling
it quits on this entry because I’ve rambled on for a long time now, but I’m
going to post another entry where I’ll include the hope and help that is there
for those who really want it.
