One issue that surrounds the culture of today is the respect of the body.
This can of course have several meanings, but today I wish to concentrate on the most important aspect of respecting your body: sexual relations.
I can’t count how many times I have heard the question; “What does it matter if I had sex last night? It was just sex, no strings attached. So what if I have a friend with benefits – and the other person is only looking for sex too?”
That question is often prefaced by my favorite line, “Everybody does it now.” Well I say, “That isn’t a true statement. I know a lot of people who don’t ‘do it.’”
In the same breath, some of the people tell me they want a relationship and moments earlier, they gave me a detailed description of the night before.
Think for a moment of the one person you want to actually have a lifetime relationship with or perhaps the person you want to get to know better.
Now, picture them at a club or party throwing themselves at the feet of every person in the room.
Sexual relations involves an obvious physical union, but, on a deeper and more important level, the spirit and soul, if you will, become so closely connected that the saying “two become one” proves correct.
The vulnerability of two people who reveal their bodies to each other has deep, lasting results, so that no-strings-attached sez becomes an impossibility.
So, what you really are saying is, “I want to use you for five minutes and then I want you to get away from me.
“I am so selfish of my needs that I don’t care what you want afterward but I will call you again when the urge returns.”
We are reminded that we are made in the image of God, a God who is absolute in goodness.
Sex is part of the natural composition of humans. It is part of us, but how we choose to engage sexually is the area that we need to examine.
Christ calls us to become bonded and get to the point of commitment and to peel away our shell as if you peel back an onion.
The process of getting to know someone is the fun part.
I have asked couples who were dating what their significant others’ favorite color was, and you may or may not be shocked at the amount of people who didn’t have the right answer or any answer.
I am convinced that a large number of long-term marriages that end in divorce and long-term relationships that end in break-ups are due to the fact they never really got to know each other.
When we pull back the sheets before we pull back our lives to each other we run the real danger of opening our lives up to a vast amount of potential problems.
Pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are very real and the pain of abortion is real.
When we think of sex, St. Paul reminds us that it is nothing to be ashamed of.
Sex is to be embraced as part of a covenant that continues to strengthen the human bond and to draw us each closer, as we are called, to live in unity and respect the dignity of the human person.
The step that you take in saying “no” to the hook-up may very well be the step that you both need to grown and foster a deeper and healthier relationship.
There has been more than one occasion when I have heard, “I only did it because he/she wanted to” and then I ask what if they didn’t pursue it – would you still want to date them? And the honest answer is “yes” because meaningless sex is empty and very momentarily satisfying. We as humans desire a long lasting bond that goes beyond sex and into the spiritual world.
Chew on that this week.
