Читать книгу Scarred Faith - Landon Alexander - Страница 5

Let me take you back to the time before I met my lovely wife. Back in the day, before accepting Christ as Lord, my wretched life was hardly the stuff of an evangelical role model. I left behind two marriages, both of which I wrecked with my infidelity, a hazard of my busy career in the corporate world, where sex is seen as stress relief.

I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a keen interest in the stock market and investing. After a stint in the military, I got into the world of business and enjoyed some success as a stockbroker. I was your typical guy who lives to satisfy his needs and get as much pleasure as he can. A man like that thinks he is entitled to whatever comes his way. I thought that was what life was about: following my lust and gratifying my desires. That way is wide and many practice that lifestyle.

Desire for pleasure is deeper in men than almost any other motivation. It’s hardwired into the very way we think — our carnal mind. When we see something attractive, we want it. And if there’s a way to have it, we’ll do almost anything to get it. And then it’s on to the next attraction along that dead-end road.

I traveled that way, married and divorced a couple of times, as I said. I was largely responsible for the damage and failure of those relationships, in what passes for a normal man’s life in these corrupt times, when so many of us have an eye for the eyes of others.

You see, as men, we’re just not prepared for the real demands of marriage. We have some ideas about how we think things ought to go: our marriage should stabilize things for us, give us what we need, whenever we need it — that kind of thing. We’re not prepared for the daily struggle that marriage too often delivers. I mean the tit-for-tat conflict with the other who has vowed to have and to hold us, forsaking all others. That vow is too much for many of us. When things aren’t working out, we want out. We think freedom is doing whatever we want to do.

So I had been in and out of a couple of marriages, without producing any kids, fortunately. Then a friend brought me to his church and I began to see that there was a better way than the one I knew.

I needed to find the Truth, because I knew I was living the Lie, which seemed to promise so much but mostly made me miserable. I hated myself for my immorality and for being such a screw-up, like so many others. I had to figure out who I wanted to be, instead of this troubled man that I was. I’d been indulging in whatever was offered, getting my fill of what the world was all about, or seemed to be. I was ignorant of anything beyond my selfish ways.

I was sick of myself and the way I was living, or more directly, dying. Thankfully, a friend brought me to his church, where I was convicted in my sin. I had to choose between continuing my life of ignorance and giving it up to follow the Way of Life offered in Jesus Christ. The choice was mine, and I became a devoted student of the Word. I was baptized, and new true life began within me.

By this time, I was already about 40 years old. My work in corporate America then brought me to the Chicago area. Here, I was led to join a fellowship.

Let me tell you about the Brothers in this fellowship. I always felt I had a good relationship with these men, knowing we could talk about anything, at anytime. In those days, most of us were single and could help each other remain strong and pure.

Summertime in the city is a tuff time for any man of God. Why? Because so many pretty women take summer as a license to wear less clothing, making them seem more available and desirable to men. As their clothing becomes more revealing, a hot-blooded man’s discipline is tested more severely.

As a fellowship of Brothers, we had special gatherings to prepare our hearts and minds for the struggles of the season. We discussed the challenges we had faced before and the difficulties we would face, as summer undressed the city’s women. We were committed to help each other if we were in danger of succumbing to sin.

What a powerful time that was for us, as we praised God, prayed and opened up with real honesty about our struggles! Although our senses were under attack from temptation, we were a group of dedicated men on a mission to show the world around us that we would not be defeated by those almost irresistible influences. I saw men sharing their struggles and victories. It really was a battle for us, because Christian men are subjected to the very same desires and temptations as other men in this world.

I was able to build relationships with a few Brothers whose struggles and battles were similar to mine. Over the summer, we hung out and played basketball, went to movies, or just enjoyed the camaraderie of the fellowship, eating wings together at the local Wingstop restaurant. Our conversations were engaging and sometimes turned heated, but we always ended in brotherly love. We all felt that our disagreements made us stronger and brought us closer together in Christ.

We also longed to be married, so we would speak of the women we felt attracted to in the fellowship. We spoke of our feelings for them and what we would do when we were husbands. You see, women aren’t the only ones who think and talk about being married! Single men often imagine and fantasize about their prospects for marriage. Some of the Brothers worked very hard to make their dream of marriage a reality.

In our fellowship, we were all very close and spoke on a daily basis. It was good to have such great friends/Brothers, but the time came for me to search for the wife of my life, in earnest. I found her in the fellowship — a stunning and wonderful lady with a heart for God, such as you find described as the proverbial wife and virtuous woman:

”Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”

(Proverbs 31:25-26)

I had found my lovely wife. She was indeed praiseworthy. And she was also very attractive, you might even say, voluptuous. A woman any man would be proud to have for his wife. And classy — almost too good for me, to my way of thinking. Don’t tell her I said that!

I really believed our marriage was going to be everything I wanted it to be, and provide all I could ever want, as a man and as a husband. I don’t have to tell you how I desired my lovely wife — the answer to my prayers for a partner.

We are told in Ecclesiastes: ”Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given you.” (Eccl. 9:9)

And in Hebrews: ”Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”(Heb. 13:4)

We married quite quickly; we met in January and were married in April. We conceived our first child on our honeymoon. And then it stopped, frankly. We abstained for years. Hard to believe, I know. Living with an incredibly attractive woman, the mother of my young child, I lived without sex. How did I survive? You can probably guess. A man needs relief, every so often. How often? That depends on the man and how sick he is with the need, and how much temptation comes his way, or he seeks out, whether in magazines, or the Internet, or on the street.

Self-abuse, or self-pleasure, or self-love, (whatever you want to call masturbation), diverts the course of desire. I knew it, but that was all I had for relief. Then it became a habit. I’d plan my day around it. But this was a diversion of desire, like running a river over a waterwheel to grind some grain into a paltry bit of flour. Meanwhile, my wife’s body was the bread of love that I was refused, for reasons known only to her (she had her own issues around sex with men before me, as I’ve since learned). I thought she stopped wanting me. Or that she hadn’t really wanted me, anyway, except as the father of her child. Maybe her sexuality was immature and naive? Maybe sex was only for making babies.

Whatever is going on with his wife, a man’s desire must run its course. Dam a river and it will back up and flood other areas, or break through and make a huge mess downstream. Diverting desire through self-abuse was not the answer, though many men now practice their addiction that way. It’s not even a temporary solution; it’s a waste and a disgrace.

But why that river of desire? Why is it so powerful in us, coursing through our veins, from heart to brain and carnal mind, to manhood and irrepressible need? Sex is not just about the climax of pleasure — that’s fleeting. Could be, it’s more about the power of knowing good and evil, which drives us and which is hardly ours to control. Is this why Paul says the husband and wife have authority over each other’s body? Each needs the other to sustain this powerful force within their marriage, within the holy wholeness of their ”one flesh,” in a marriage that equals One to the power of Two — one squared.

(Genesis 2:24; Matt. 19:5; Eph. 5:31; 1 Cor. 6:16)

Remember, Paul said the husband and wife should not deprive each other, ”lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of control.”

(1 Cor. 7:5)

What lack of control is Paul talking about? It’s our habit and addiction, our carnal weakness, our inability to resist temptation. And being denied sex with his own wife can be maddening for a married man, causing him to act in unpredictable ways, some that can seem to be quite out of character.

His wife’s denial can be outrageous and offensive to him. Disaffection can seem like mistreatment. Because man is hardwired for sex, being denied sexual satisfaction with his wife can be seen as a deliberate disconnection, a heartless expression of disregard and disapproval. Denial can imply unacceptable disrespect to a man. It is a form of disconnect that can wound him deeply and provoke him to overreact in any number of ways.

A married man is the type of beast that can be driven to self-destruction by his wife’s dissing of his manhood. He can be sent down to sin by his woman’s dismissive attitude. He can overreact to her disrespect and lack of response. Given the chance, he can fall into temptation and sin simply because he is offered an opportunity for sexual appeasement that his marriage does not provide.

Don’t get me wrong; this is not to justify sin in the least. I am trying to explain how it happens. Even if his heart is for God, it’s possible that a man, denied by his wife, can find temptation too hard to decline, in spite of any way of escape that is given.

So there we were, my wife and I, with no real connection. This left me at the mercy of my hardwired need. Looking back, I can hardly believe it. How did we reach that state of opposition, that degree of separation? Nights became weeks that dragged into months that rounded into years. My wife did not invite or initiate sex. We had a real lack of emotional connection. Our body language as a couple probably told anyone with eyes to see that we were not one flesh.

What was I to do? Think about it. A husband expects to have sex with his wife. What’s a man to do, without it? The deprivation begins to drive him crazy. He can’t help it; he starts to look around. He sees what he wants almost everywhere he looks. And then he needs sex more than anything else. It becomes his focus and pressure builds within him, for which there is no release within his marriage. He is twisted by his need. He would set aside his self-respect for release from the need that’s driving him crazy, no matter how he will regret it later, or how disgraced he will be if the details go public, or how it will destroy the carefully constructed life that gives him so much, except for the relief he desires. He is willing to destroy his life, in effect, for the sake of his desire, which tells you just how weak he is in spirit, and how addicted to sex.

What’s a man to do when his wife is giving him nothing? And hardly cares that she’s giving him nothing, or that he’s getting nothing from her. What’s a man supposed to do? Talk sense with her? Talk her into caring? Seduce his own wife? Who’s that good at talking? I’m certainly not. Good luck with getting lucky in a marriage like that!

By giving us nothing, our unwilling wives turn us away. They send us to temptation. By not showing us affection, they make us feel unlovable. By not respecting us, they destroy our self-respect, and make us vulnerable to other options. And so we begin our descent into the madness of our lust for what is not ours. God help us.

Self-abuse might seem to relieve the frustration that is the agony of desire without union, but it’s simply a deceitful habit that feeds the addiction. Everybody knows how easy it is to find sexy images on the Internet today. Those images of naked women might offer some relief, but over time this misleading practice develops our need for even more explicit images — stronger pornography. What they say about drug users needing more and more powerful drugs to maintain the intensity of the kick is true of sexual addiction, too. The more we give in to it, the worse we want it, and the sicker it gets. We are sick with the disease of sex addiction and the sin it generates.