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FLIRTING WITH
DISASTER
Leo,
a cytologist, works in the lab at a local hospital spending his
days peering through the lens of a microscope. The anonymous numbered
blood samples and slides all look the same at first glance, but
when Leo powers up his microscope he is looking at intimate and
tragic human storylines contained in a single drop of blood. On
a daily basis he identifies cancers, abnormalities and sexually
transmitted diseases.
“Here’s one,”
he says, motioning for me to take a look. As I look through the
lens he explains what I am seeing on the cellular level. “Now,
this one’s normal,” he says as he quickly switches the
slide. “Look again, normal … deadly … normal …
deadly.”
“What does this
slide mean in layman’s terms?” I ask.
Leo leans back, rubbing
his eyes as though each slide exacts an emotional toll. “It
means that somewhere out there a college student is sitting in class
this morning with no idea that his or her sexual activities have
destroyed their bright hopes.”
Although HIV and AIDS
soak up the headlines, a malignant family of sexually transmitted
diseases is quietly destroying lives. Nearly one in four sexually
active teens is living with a sexually transmitted disease (STD),
according to Dr. Meg Meeker in Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing
Our Kids (Lifeline Press, 2002). Although teenagers make up
just 10 percent of the population, they acquire between 20 and 25
percent of all STDs. Sexual activity outside of God’s moral
boundaries comes with an incredible risk. When a teenager chooses
to give up his or her virginity, their first encounter with a sexually
active partner carries a terribly high chance of infection.
Statistics, though shocking,
can also produce a numbing effect. The chances of infection are
around one in four, but if you are infected, you are 100 percent
infected.
DESTROYING THE
SPIRIT
The
spiritual toll of sex outside of marriage can be measured in percentages
too. Sex outside of marriage exacts a horrible cost on 100 percent
of those who participate. Sex is God’s gift to a married couple
who make a covenant together before God. A man and a woman become
one flesh. Sex outside of marriage is the tearing asunder of the
human spirit. We need look no further than the divorce court to
see the results of “one flesh” torn asunder. That loss
is measured in broken vows, broken children, broken hearts, broken
finances, broken testimonies, broken dreams and broken friendships.
Sexual activity before
marriage is an unholy establishment of one flesh without the benefit
of a guiding covenant. It is the violation of God’s temple
and law, and the trampling underfoot of His gift. The premarital
loss of virginity is not a casual and youthful rite of passage.
Most people who come to see me with struggles concerning premarital
sexual guilt are years into their marriage and approaching middle
age. One lady put it this way: “I was so promiscuous when
I was young, I guess I didn’t have much left of me to give
when I got married.”
A culture driven by a
selfish pursuit of pleasure is a culture littered with lives torn
apart. Christian parents face the absolute responsibility to prepare
their children for life in a sex-soaked world. It is a spiritual
duty. It is a protective duty. If we are derelict in this duty,
we have sent our children out to play hopscotch in a minefield.
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