In Sex, Lies and Religion, Randy Elrod gains my attention by asking “Have you ever had an experience with God that exceeds your most wild and fulfilling sexual moment? If the answer is no, you are not alone.”

I’d have to admit that for most of the first half of the book, I was lost as to where Randy was truly going.  I thought maybe he was saying that without having real sensual sex, one could not understand true intimacy with God. This might be a problem with singles who should believe that sex outside of marriage is sinful.

The book was in part a history of the lies that culture and religion have created that bends the truth about sex.  It was in part a description of how to have good sex.  It was in part a theology of seeing the body as important as the soul and the injustice religion and culture have put on the value of the senses and the body.  Throughout the book, he interweaves sex physically and spiritually with your mate and with God.  He says that our desires for sex is our desire for God. I felt that it was written from the assumption that the reader is a Christian married person and only mentions briefly what singles are to do.

In the end, the book was more about how sexual lies affect more than our sex lives, they show up in what we believe about God and visa versa.  Ultimately, the intimacy that is lacking in the marriage is also probably lacking with Him.  The last 40 some pages, in my opinion, would have served great at the beginning of the book.

The book has a lot of material and concepts in which 134 pages cannot do justice to the thought. For more on the book’s ideas, check out http://www.sexliesandreligion.com

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When you’re young you dream about the future in education, love, money, career, fun.

When you’re a business executive you dream about the future growth and profit of the company.

When you’re an evil scientist you dream of world domination.

We all dream of what could be and should be.

But

1). It doesn’t mean that everyone is going to buy into your dream.

Joseph in the Old Testament had a dream that his brothers and his father would be ruled by him.  This dream caused his brothers to hate him and ultimately sell him as a slave for 30 pieces of silver.

2). There are going to be people that want to change the course of your dream with their dream.

Joseph was a finely built and good looking man (kinda like myself, ha) and his master’s wife kept trying to get him to have sex with her.  He refused. One day she created a lie to her husband that Joseph tried to have sex with her to get back at him for not fulfilling her dream.  This sent Joseph to prison.

3). Not everyone is going to continue buying into your dream even if they first do.

Joseph helped interpret a dream of a cup bearer in the Egyptian prison.  He was excited over the good news of the dream and promised to help get Joseph out of prison, but once he was out, he forgot about Joseph.

It’s awesome to dream and put your dreams to action, but beware of the hardships that are going to come when you dare to dream.

Too often there are times when the phrase “ignorance is bliss” is true.

The more you know, the more you realize the things you don’t know so you work hard on knowing those too.

The more you know, the more obligation you feel to do something about it.

The more you know, the more opportunity you have to overload your life with too many things for those who don’t know.

The more you know, the more you realize that the person you thought was awesome could be just as sinful as you and you feel let down.

BUT…

The more you know, the more opportunity you have to reach out to people who are going through the same struggles you’ve experienced.

The more you know, the better chance you have seeing a problem solved.

The more you know, the wiser you can be in approaching differing people and situations.

The more you know, the more you can begin to understand yourself.

The more you know, the more “valuable” you are to yourself and the world.

What other ways is ignorance bliss or not?

The more you know, the more you realize that it’s good sometimes to be in know.

I really don’t know what to say.  I haven’t blogged in quite some time.  Blogging is tough in the sense that if you don’t feel like being authentic, it’s even hard to write at all.  Even me saying how I don’t like to be authentic is me being authentic.

I’ve tried to make some consistent rhythms in my life and the moment I do, they get destroyed.  I like consistency and rhythm, not routine and ruts, there’s a difference.  Right now, I’m not getting either.  I’m sure God is teaching me something here or most likely many things.  I’m sure it’s a way to destroy more of my pride.  I haven’t been willing to eat very much humble pie, especially lately.

In Luke 10 of the New Testament, there is this account to two women interacting with Jesus.  Martha was busy about making sure the house was all in order and things were prepared for having Jesus over as a guest.  Her sister Mary just sat out with Jesus, listening to him.  This upset Martha some and asked Jesus to tell Mary to help, but instead Jesus said “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the best part; it will not be taken away from her” (vs. 41-42).

As an administrator, executive pastor and detail oriented person, success is often evaluated as whether the event or task was followed.  Working hard and paying attention to details are critically important.  However, there are other factors that make something a success.  What people get out of it doesn’t necessarily hinge on the process.  CONTENT matters.  Having a CONNECTION to the CONTENT matters.  Often times, if there is a strong connection, some of the details are overlooked.  People often complain and criticize on the details because they don’t like the content anyways.

The important thing is CREATING a connection WITH PEOPLE to the most important thing. This takes time away from the program and the process to more involvement with people.  I think this is often hard for men especially to escape because many of us carry the thinking that work equals success.  Although not working does not equal success, we must not miss “the one thing that is necessary.” The PROCESS must also PLAN for PEOPLE.

This passage is often applied to woman because it’s an account of two women, but I believe men are more like Martha than Mary more often than woman.  At least I know that it’s hard for me. Isn’t it true for you?