I've lately had this terrible spiritual dryness, not feeling the presence and the reality of God. This is, I feel now, based in God helping me grow, helping me seek to seek Him more, as, again, the One and Only Thing.
Today I was again bemoaning to Him how I didn't 'feel' Him. He feels so distant, as if I am walking in a dry barren wasteland. The sky seems hard and shut, the ground stony and unyielding. Other things, stuff other than God, seems much more real and comforting than Him right now.
As I lay there on my bed, I asked God, "Why are you doing this? Why are you allowing other things to be more real to me, than you are right now? I feel so far away, why!?"
And He brought me to realize that this is an opportunity, a chance to choose Him once more. If we felt Him all the time, what glory would we bring Him if we made the then-obvious choice of remaining in Him? It brings no glory, no honor, for me to make the obvious choice between choosing Him and the amazing feeling of JOY that He brings . . . but for me to choose Him even when I do not receive any immediate benefit, when I do not immediately feel Him, that is the proclamation of His greater goodness. To imitate Him (cross) in choosing that which I know is better, over what feels good right now, that is an essential part of the pursuit of Christ.
God's allowing me to choose Him, allowing me to bring Him honor.
At the same time, it's still a little frustrating.
I have learned that it's a bad idea to confine the pursuit of Jesus to merely thinking about Him and praying to Him. The third leg of seeking is, obviously, His Word. I am working on seeking to know who this Jesus really is, as shown by how he interacts with people. But in this state of dryness, it's been a little difficult. As I cracked open my Bible and started looking for where I had last left off in Matthew, that sense of dryness came crashing in again. It was really disheartening, looking at God's inspired Word, and feeling profoundly uninspired.
So, although I didn't feel like it, I prayed. I asked God to give me something to read, something that wasn't just words on the page.
My eyes hit Matt. 20:29-34.
These blind guys. They ask Jesus for mercy. He has, ultimately (theological discussion here), allowed them to be as they are, blind. But they know there is something more. Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" They say, "Lord, we want our sight."
They are asking for the same thing I am asking for, to see. I need to see Jesus working, to know Him in His reality. So, I asked along with them, "Jesus, I want to see." He said, "What you are asking for will be painful. A barren desert surrounds you, a dry land that you cannot survive in." I said, "I know, but I must see you. Whatever else, if I am going to pursue You, I have to see You in that desert."
Which, really, who can survive in that desert, without the water that He gives? Who can maintain a pursuit of Him apart from Him? That's the whole point of John 15:1-8, remaining in the vine.
Matt. 8:31 records what happened next: "Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him."
That's what I want.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Success?
We had an interesting question in class. Well, two applications of the same question.
What defines a successful man? What makes other people look up to a man?
What defines a successful woman? What makes other people look up to a woman?
After thinking about this, I wondered, "Is to be successful ultimately defined as being able to both determine and execute the correct response pattern in any situation." ?
And when I say success, I mean success as defined in a world without God.
Here's the definition of success that I've come to adopt.
What do you think?
What defines a successful man? What makes other people look up to a man?
What defines a successful woman? What makes other people look up to a woman?
After thinking about this, I wondered, "Is to be successful ultimately defined as being able to both determine and execute the correct response pattern in any situation." ?
And when I say success, I mean success as defined in a world without God.
Here's the definition of success that I've come to adopt.
What do you think?
Thursday, January 05, 2006
The Onething Conference
This is not exactly a fun post.
I have long been a little suspicious of emotion. People in the grip of emotion, not thinking logically, have done many, many terrible things. I have not been personally affected by this phenomenon, but it is most assuredly common. Example: WWII on the European front. If Hitler had not been able to emotionally sway people to follow him he would not have had the resources to take over Germany’s government, and attempt to take over the world. Without emotion, there would have been no Third Reich, no Holocaust. Emotion was hijacked and used for personal gain. That would be one example of emotion used for the purpose of evil. In countless cases the terrible story of emotion clouding logic is played out through murders and abuse every day, across America and the world.
Thus, I was a bit leery of emotion, and wanted to get rid of mine. It seemed that life would be so much easier if I could just live out of my head, where I knew the right things to do, instead of wading through my emotions. For those of you who have heard the story of me growing up, I indeed usually knew the right things to do.
I was the “good kid,” the one who always did everything right. I went to Sunday School my whole life, I knew all the answers. I became very, very good at controlling myself externally. I can hide just about anything beneath a calm exterior and I’m good at lying. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy acting, though I’m not nearly as good at it as I thought I was.
But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about emotion. And it would seem that a vast majority of the problems in the world would be eliminated if we weren’t such emotional creatures. I of course realized that since God created us with emotion, it must be good; I just had a real hard time seeing how.
I am, or try to be, a very logical person. I really enjoy listening to logical teaching, being able to think through processes, and debate with my friends. Each time I like to see how things connect, what implications are necessarily present, and where there is a logic fault that must be addressed.
I hate, really hate, simple emotional appeals. If you can’t convince me of something with a good, reasonable process, you can hit the road buddy. I refuse to be swayed by mere guilt trips – and in Christ I have the freedom and backing to do so.
This had not come without some sacrifices, if that’s what you call them. The by-product of me always keeping myself under such a tight rein, always controlling my external self, was that I was oftentimes unable to let emotion sweep over me. At those CIY’s and ICYC’s (Indiana Christian Youth Convention, I’m sure your state had it’s own version – TCTC, PCTC, ICTC, and KCYC to name a few), not to mention (so I’m mentioning them) the NMC’s and NACC’s (National Missionary Conventions and North American Christian Conventions, respectively) I was never able to join those people up front jumping up and down to the music, having a great time.
Yes, part of that was also my self-consciousness, constantly worrying about what other people were thinking of me. But whenever I would try to do the whole jumping thing, I just kept thinking, “Why am I doing this? This is stupid.” So I’d just go back to my chair and enjoy the drumbeats.
Oh, and I grew up in a Restoration Movement church, so I had that background too. Where we stand in our pew, sing the songs, listen to the preacher, and go home. No emotional involvement emphasized.
About a month or two ago I came to the realization that:
1) We, as human beings, are DRIVEN by emotion. That’s how God created us. It is emotion that allows us to do virtually anything we set our minds too – besides being created in God’s image. Wait, maybe that’s the same thing . . .
2) We, as fallen human beings, must bound our emotion with logic. Because what ‘feels’ right often isn’t.
3) We, as equally fallen human beings, must bind our logic with God. Jesus, specifically.
4) Thus, Jesus must inform our logic, which must inform our emotions.
But even so, I still have a lifetime of logic/emotion in my past. And while I’ve come to appreciate emotion more, I’m still very much a logical person. Newton’s Law is my own.
Summary: I like logic, and am learning to like emotion.
That was the background to what I need to write. You had to understand where I was coming from.
I was privileged to attend the Onething conference in Kansas City, Missouri, from Jan. 27 – 31. Now, anyone who has been reading my posts, Joeletters, or known me from Deeper last year ‘till now, knows that that title for a conference really, really excites me. The concept that our only point and goal in life is to know Christ more intimately each day, that we are to make Him our OneThing – that that’s what life’s about. You know how much that fires me up.
We arrived at the convention center during the 7:00 p.m. main session. It was the usual good fun loud music, people up front jumping. But a difference between the CIY’s, ICYC’s, NMC’s, and NACC’s, and this conference, quickly became apparent. The worship times were VERY emotionally driven. They took a song and played it for at least 10 minutes, using the dynamics of the song to lead us up and down emotionally – you know, louder/softer, intense/peaceful, (no key changes that I remember, which in retrospect surprises me).
They would just get caught up in the song, it seemed, and sing parts of it over and over. I started to understand how people raised on hymns must feel about these new-fangled choruses. At a certain point in each song I was emotioned out, and just stood numbly singing. Have we mentioned my ability to outwardly worship, while inwardly being approximately eighty-seven-and-one-half miles away? I’m really good at it. My voice takes over; I can harmonize, sing melody, even move my body to some small degree. All the while, my mind is completely gone.
Then we’d move on to a new song and start the process over again. And it seemed that every song was it’s own little session unto itself, from my perspective. They’d take one song, run us through the gamut of emotions (happy, sad, energetic, peaceful, pumping your fist - a simple raised hand - just swaying with the music), the entire rollercoaster. They’d usually end the song nice and gentle. Then they’d take the next song, and do the exact same thing! Start gentle, or rock hard, go up and down, in and out, repeat it about 35 times, and end.
Well, coming from my personal background of being suspicious of pure emotional appeals, as well as being a Restoration pewstander (that’s copyrighted, I made it up), as well as expecting a song to end after we had sung all of the words, that sorta ruffled my feathers. It’s all good though, I figured.
Next came the preaching time. Now I started getting angry. The more I heard, the more it seemed to me that this guy was just preaching his opinion on the Bible. He gave a few verses to support a few points, but mostly he just seemed to be an impassioned opinionator. That doesn’t sit well with me. Like the Bereans, I need to be able to track with a speaker’s logic train, as well as his or her Biblical sources, to determine if what they’re saying is compatible with God’s truth. (Acts 16:11)
And he was preaching on stuff that I wasn’t really at all familiar with, even with my 19 years in the church. He was coming from a different tradition. So here I was, listening to something that I had no real previous knowledge of, and hearing conclusions without supporting facts. It wasn’t working for me. The majority of the audience didn’t seem to have the same reservations as I did, for spontaneous applause and amen’ing would break out when he made a particularly impassioned point. (Also something my Restoration background didn’t emphasize.)
But, I figured, give the guy a chance; this is just one sermon after all. And I don’t have any problem with passion in oratory, or applause and amen’ing. Just because it doesn’t fit into my background doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
We went home, slept precious little, and got back the next day in time for the first (9:00 a.m.) main session of the day. Much to my chagrin, little had changed. The music was the same – excellent, but seemed overplayed. The sermon was by the same guy as the first night. I settled back and readied myself to give the guy another fair hearing. But again, he used a few verses and mostly orated. He was really passionate about was he was saying, but I still hadn’t really ever been introduced to the concepts before. He wasn’t giving me much to believe on, other than his word. If you’re not preaching God’s word in context, it takes a lot more for me to trust what you’re saying.
This was how the majority of the conference progressed. Emotion emotion emotion. And I kept getting angry. It got to the point where I couldn’t stand to listen to the guy speak. This all came to a head Friday night, during the evening main session. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I left my seat and walked out, trying to find some place where I could just be quiet and sit. My heart was in turmoil.
I ended up sitting on the floor up against a wall. I just kept asking God where the fault lay, and for someone to explain to me what I didn’t understand. Then it occurred to me that the next day, Saturday, the IHOP staff were inviting us to join them in a fast. I decided to fast also, simply asking God for understanding and reconciliation of all the things I didn’t understand.
That night, as we were going to bed, I started asking Micah, one of the guys I went with, some of the questions that I had. That was a real blessing from God, to start being able to understand some things. According to Micah, the speaker guy who was making me so angry because he seemed to be preaching just his opinions DID actually use references in his teaching materials. Just because of the constraints of the conference, Micah said, did he skip the references and just teach what he had been learning. That helped to hear.
The next day, Saturday, was so good. God took that fast and helped my attitude and my understanding to come 172 degrees around. I realized that in the last month or so I had lost the initial emotion that had actually come when I came to understand that there is a real God. These people were not being swayed by something wrong by allowing themselves to be caught up in the love of God. Just because it was more expressive than I was used to didn’t mean that it was incorrect. Emotional worship, in all actuality, is as perfectly acceptable as staid, liturgical worship.
I found that my focus had slipped again, not being solely devoted to Jesus. The conference reminded me that I really have only one goal. To my extreme sadness the emotional joy I had found in Jesus when I first realized that He was real had slowly evaporated, and even now I am currently still seeking to regain that single-minded devotion. But now that loss is on my mind, and something that I am asking Jesus to fix.
I would really appreciate your prayers, these past few days have been a little rough. In addition to feeling physically down from a cold/fever, I have not yet been brought back into that feeling of joy because of Jesus – and I really miss it. Basically, I’ve lost the feeling of being loved by Jesus, and it bites.
Also, whether from sleep deprivation or what, I don’t know, but my body continues to be really tired, and my mind will randomly decide, “Well, that’s enough cognitive processing for now; Shut ‘er down.” And I just walk around in a daze. If this continues next week, during my early week class, I’m gonna have a problem!
I have long been a little suspicious of emotion. People in the grip of emotion, not thinking logically, have done many, many terrible things. I have not been personally affected by this phenomenon, but it is most assuredly common. Example: WWII on the European front. If Hitler had not been able to emotionally sway people to follow him he would not have had the resources to take over Germany’s government, and attempt to take over the world. Without emotion, there would have been no Third Reich, no Holocaust. Emotion was hijacked and used for personal gain. That would be one example of emotion used for the purpose of evil. In countless cases the terrible story of emotion clouding logic is played out through murders and abuse every day, across America and the world.
Thus, I was a bit leery of emotion, and wanted to get rid of mine. It seemed that life would be so much easier if I could just live out of my head, where I knew the right things to do, instead of wading through my emotions. For those of you who have heard the story of me growing up, I indeed usually knew the right things to do.
I was the “good kid,” the one who always did everything right. I went to Sunday School my whole life, I knew all the answers. I became very, very good at controlling myself externally. I can hide just about anything beneath a calm exterior and I’m good at lying. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy acting, though I’m not nearly as good at it as I thought I was.
But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about emotion. And it would seem that a vast majority of the problems in the world would be eliminated if we weren’t such emotional creatures. I of course realized that since God created us with emotion, it must be good; I just had a real hard time seeing how.
I am, or try to be, a very logical person. I really enjoy listening to logical teaching, being able to think through processes, and debate with my friends. Each time I like to see how things connect, what implications are necessarily present, and where there is a logic fault that must be addressed.
I hate, really hate, simple emotional appeals. If you can’t convince me of something with a good, reasonable process, you can hit the road buddy. I refuse to be swayed by mere guilt trips – and in Christ I have the freedom and backing to do so.
This had not come without some sacrifices, if that’s what you call them. The by-product of me always keeping myself under such a tight rein, always controlling my external self, was that I was oftentimes unable to let emotion sweep over me. At those CIY’s and ICYC’s (Indiana Christian Youth Convention, I’m sure your state had it’s own version – TCTC, PCTC, ICTC, and KCYC to name a few), not to mention (so I’m mentioning them) the NMC’s and NACC’s (National Missionary Conventions and North American Christian Conventions, respectively) I was never able to join those people up front jumping up and down to the music, having a great time.
Yes, part of that was also my self-consciousness, constantly worrying about what other people were thinking of me. But whenever I would try to do the whole jumping thing, I just kept thinking, “Why am I doing this? This is stupid.” So I’d just go back to my chair and enjoy the drumbeats.
Oh, and I grew up in a Restoration Movement church, so I had that background too. Where we stand in our pew, sing the songs, listen to the preacher, and go home. No emotional involvement emphasized.
About a month or two ago I came to the realization that:
1) We, as human beings, are DRIVEN by emotion. That’s how God created us. It is emotion that allows us to do virtually anything we set our minds too – besides being created in God’s image. Wait, maybe that’s the same thing . . .
2) We, as fallen human beings, must bound our emotion with logic. Because what ‘feels’ right often isn’t.
3) We, as equally fallen human beings, must bind our logic with God. Jesus, specifically.
4) Thus, Jesus must inform our logic, which must inform our emotions.
But even so, I still have a lifetime of logic/emotion in my past. And while I’ve come to appreciate emotion more, I’m still very much a logical person. Newton’s Law is my own.
Summary: I like logic, and am learning to like emotion.
That was the background to what I need to write. You had to understand where I was coming from.
I was privileged to attend the Onething conference in Kansas City, Missouri, from Jan. 27 – 31. Now, anyone who has been reading my posts, Joeletters, or known me from Deeper last year ‘till now, knows that that title for a conference really, really excites me. The concept that our only point and goal in life is to know Christ more intimately each day, that we are to make Him our OneThing – that that’s what life’s about. You know how much that fires me up.
We arrived at the convention center during the 7:00 p.m. main session. It was the usual good fun loud music, people up front jumping. But a difference between the CIY’s, ICYC’s, NMC’s, and NACC’s, and this conference, quickly became apparent. The worship times were VERY emotionally driven. They took a song and played it for at least 10 minutes, using the dynamics of the song to lead us up and down emotionally – you know, louder/softer, intense/peaceful, (no key changes that I remember, which in retrospect surprises me).
They would just get caught up in the song, it seemed, and sing parts of it over and over. I started to understand how people raised on hymns must feel about these new-fangled choruses. At a certain point in each song I was emotioned out, and just stood numbly singing. Have we mentioned my ability to outwardly worship, while inwardly being approximately eighty-seven-and-one-half miles away? I’m really good at it. My voice takes over; I can harmonize, sing melody, even move my body to some small degree. All the while, my mind is completely gone.
Then we’d move on to a new song and start the process over again. And it seemed that every song was it’s own little session unto itself, from my perspective. They’d take one song, run us through the gamut of emotions (happy, sad, energetic, peaceful, pumping your fist - a simple raised hand - just swaying with the music), the entire rollercoaster. They’d usually end the song nice and gentle. Then they’d take the next song, and do the exact same thing! Start gentle, or rock hard, go up and down, in and out, repeat it about 35 times, and end.
Well, coming from my personal background of being suspicious of pure emotional appeals, as well as being a Restoration pewstander (that’s copyrighted, I made it up), as well as expecting a song to end after we had sung all of the words, that sorta ruffled my feathers. It’s all good though, I figured.
Next came the preaching time. Now I started getting angry. The more I heard, the more it seemed to me that this guy was just preaching his opinion on the Bible. He gave a few verses to support a few points, but mostly he just seemed to be an impassioned opinionator. That doesn’t sit well with me. Like the Bereans, I need to be able to track with a speaker’s logic train, as well as his or her Biblical sources, to determine if what they’re saying is compatible with God’s truth. (Acts 16:11)
And he was preaching on stuff that I wasn’t really at all familiar with, even with my 19 years in the church. He was coming from a different tradition. So here I was, listening to something that I had no real previous knowledge of, and hearing conclusions without supporting facts. It wasn’t working for me. The majority of the audience didn’t seem to have the same reservations as I did, for spontaneous applause and amen’ing would break out when he made a particularly impassioned point. (Also something my Restoration background didn’t emphasize.)
But, I figured, give the guy a chance; this is just one sermon after all. And I don’t have any problem with passion in oratory, or applause and amen’ing. Just because it doesn’t fit into my background doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
We went home, slept precious little, and got back the next day in time for the first (9:00 a.m.) main session of the day. Much to my chagrin, little had changed. The music was the same – excellent, but seemed overplayed. The sermon was by the same guy as the first night. I settled back and readied myself to give the guy another fair hearing. But again, he used a few verses and mostly orated. He was really passionate about was he was saying, but I still hadn’t really ever been introduced to the concepts before. He wasn’t giving me much to believe on, other than his word. If you’re not preaching God’s word in context, it takes a lot more for me to trust what you’re saying.
This was how the majority of the conference progressed. Emotion emotion emotion. And I kept getting angry. It got to the point where I couldn’t stand to listen to the guy speak. This all came to a head Friday night, during the evening main session. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I left my seat and walked out, trying to find some place where I could just be quiet and sit. My heart was in turmoil.
I ended up sitting on the floor up against a wall. I just kept asking God where the fault lay, and for someone to explain to me what I didn’t understand. Then it occurred to me that the next day, Saturday, the IHOP staff were inviting us to join them in a fast. I decided to fast also, simply asking God for understanding and reconciliation of all the things I didn’t understand.
That night, as we were going to bed, I started asking Micah, one of the guys I went with, some of the questions that I had. That was a real blessing from God, to start being able to understand some things. According to Micah, the speaker guy who was making me so angry because he seemed to be preaching just his opinions DID actually use references in his teaching materials. Just because of the constraints of the conference, Micah said, did he skip the references and just teach what he had been learning. That helped to hear.
The next day, Saturday, was so good. God took that fast and helped my attitude and my understanding to come 172 degrees around. I realized that in the last month or so I had lost the initial emotion that had actually come when I came to understand that there is a real God. These people were not being swayed by something wrong by allowing themselves to be caught up in the love of God. Just because it was more expressive than I was used to didn’t mean that it was incorrect. Emotional worship, in all actuality, is as perfectly acceptable as staid, liturgical worship.
I found that my focus had slipped again, not being solely devoted to Jesus. The conference reminded me that I really have only one goal. To my extreme sadness the emotional joy I had found in Jesus when I first realized that He was real had slowly evaporated, and even now I am currently still seeking to regain that single-minded devotion. But now that loss is on my mind, and something that I am asking Jesus to fix.
I would really appreciate your prayers, these past few days have been a little rough. In addition to feeling physically down from a cold/fever, I have not yet been brought back into that feeling of joy because of Jesus – and I really miss it. Basically, I’ve lost the feeling of being loved by Jesus, and it bites.
Also, whether from sleep deprivation or what, I don’t know, but my body continues to be really tired, and my mind will randomly decide, “Well, that’s enough cognitive processing for now; Shut ‘er down.” And I just walk around in a daze. If this continues next week, during my early week class, I’m gonna have a problem!
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Humor
"Listen carefully. I can only tell you this once, 'cause I promised not to repeat it."
Aight y'all, I'm working on writing out the lessons, thoughts, and growing that happened this past week at the Onething conference in Missouri. Until that gets finished, I've collected this humor for you to enjoy.
Two mothers were talking about their daughters. One said, "Yes, my daughter is very good. She just has one fault: she fibs constantly.
"So I sat her down and told her the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I finished by telling her how when the wolf actually came, nobody ran to his rescue because of all the times he had lied before. She sat there thoughtfully for a moment, then looked up at me and said,
"You know, I was eaten by a wolf once . . ."
While looking for a research book in the CCU library, I quite by accident stumbled across this completely different little gem of a book, entitled, "A Modern Look At Modesty." The book was not new looking, so I picked it up and looked at the copyright information.
I don't know how many of you have heard my opinion on modesty. Briefly, it's this: I REALLY appreciate it if you're modest, but you CANNOT be held responsible for my mind. It is my responsibility before God to guard my mind, heart, and eyes. It's not your job. Whatever you wear, people can lust. It's a choice, not an involuntary reaction. And that goes for both guys and girls, though from my personal perspective it would be more directed at girls. So, whatever you wear is between you and God. It's my job not to lust. And because of Christ is it possible.
That's why I found this book extremely humorous. The author did not share my opinion, but subscribed to the widely held view that it's a woman's job to keep a guy from lusting. That led to some fascinating conclusions. I jotted down the best of these for you to enjoy with me. The book's still there, copyrighted 1965.
"Incidentally, even the logic of a purely humorous approach to wearing shorts should be sufficient to discourage an honest woman from wearing them. If she's skinny, she looks like two fence posts in them; and common sense should keep her from wearing them. A heavy woman resembles the back end of a truck, and she has even more reason (forgive the pun) for not being seen in shorts. And if a woman really looks good in them, she for sure should not wear them."
"Backless shoes add to her general bedroom atmosphere."
On depravity in advertising:
"Or this advertisement of a swimsuit, "If she's got it, these suits show it."
"Another is a man who has just gotten out of a car that has been badly damaged. He has crashed into a concrete pole on the sidewalk. He is beside the damaged car and calling after someone: "You and your skin tight, flesh-colored Capri pants!"
Here's the kicker. And, he's got me for the first couple sentences. Then . . .
Men are attracted to femininity. That's the way God made them. They like girls who dress with oodles of ribbons and bows. The like fluffy, frilly dress with skirts that have lots of swishy petticoats. They like blowy hair and soft, white skin. There's nothing wrong with being every inch a girl.
ROTFLMHO
Aight y'all, I'm working on writing out the lessons, thoughts, and growing that happened this past week at the Onething conference in Missouri. Until that gets finished, I've collected this humor for you to enjoy.
Two mothers were talking about their daughters. One said, "Yes, my daughter is very good. She just has one fault: she fibs constantly.
"So I sat her down and told her the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I finished by telling her how when the wolf actually came, nobody ran to his rescue because of all the times he had lied before. She sat there thoughtfully for a moment, then looked up at me and said,
"You know, I was eaten by a wolf once . . ."
While looking for a research book in the CCU library, I quite by accident stumbled across this completely different little gem of a book, entitled, "A Modern Look At Modesty." The book was not new looking, so I picked it up and looked at the copyright information.
I don't know how many of you have heard my opinion on modesty. Briefly, it's this: I REALLY appreciate it if you're modest, but you CANNOT be held responsible for my mind. It is my responsibility before God to guard my mind, heart, and eyes. It's not your job. Whatever you wear, people can lust. It's a choice, not an involuntary reaction. And that goes for both guys and girls, though from my personal perspective it would be more directed at girls. So, whatever you wear is between you and God. It's my job not to lust. And because of Christ is it possible.
That's why I found this book extremely humorous. The author did not share my opinion, but subscribed to the widely held view that it's a woman's job to keep a guy from lusting. That led to some fascinating conclusions. I jotted down the best of these for you to enjoy with me. The book's still there, copyrighted 1965.
"Incidentally, even the logic of a purely humorous approach to wearing shorts should be sufficient to discourage an honest woman from wearing them. If she's skinny, she looks like two fence posts in them; and common sense should keep her from wearing them. A heavy woman resembles the back end of a truck, and she has even more reason (forgive the pun) for not being seen in shorts. And if a woman really looks good in them, she for sure should not wear them."
"Backless shoes add to her general bedroom atmosphere."
On depravity in advertising:
"Or this advertisement of a swimsuit, "If she's got it, these suits show it."
"Another is a man who has just gotten out of a car that has been badly damaged. He has crashed into a concrete pole on the sidewalk. He is beside the damaged car and calling after someone: "You and your skin tight, flesh-colored Capri pants!"
Here's the kicker. And, he's got me for the first couple sentences. Then . . .
Men are attracted to femininity. That's the way God made them. They like girls who dress with oodles of ribbons and bows. The like fluffy, frilly dress with skirts that have lots of swishy petticoats. They like blowy hair and soft, white skin. There's nothing wrong with being every inch a girl.
ROTFLMHO
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