Suffocating? Breathe.
I attended a recital one evening. I was sitting in the 2nd row on the left-hand section and took notice of the 2 lesbians sitting in front of me. There wasn’t anything unusual (besides the big embroidered foul word on one of the girl’s jacket), so I didn’t put much attention to them. Not until we had a mid-session break after I return from the men's room. The audience were breaking out in chats and the usual socialising in events like this, and so did the lesbian couple. One of them exclaimed excitedly and loudly “Guess what?! I didn’t have sex with her!!”. That followed with a high ten, and the appraisal from the other girl “I’m so proud of you!”.
The girls went on to describe how difficult it was as there has been a really good foundation built between her and the date (I assume). And the conversation ducked down in volume.
That scenario surfaced when I got home. How is it that the secular world can celebrate such a thing call self-control, but in the church environment believers are afraid to even show any sign of struggle? It is as if struggle and temptation, and weakness is a forbidden word in the church and God would strike lightning on anyone who dares talk about it.
Look, the truth is, if you live in a human body, you’ll forever succumb to sinful nature and face temptation. Listen, it’s the entirety of our human lives. So stop denying and hide, and start being truthful about the apparent struggles we go through. Self-inflicted pain, struggles, denial worked for the churches a decade or two ago. But today, honesty, truthfulness and transparency empower us! These characters fan the flame which could bring down the entire forest — not literally.
Who are in your support system? Who is the buddy that you’re accountable for in this journey of faith? Why don’t you tell him or her what issues you’ve practised self-control on? Self-control is a fruit of the spirit. Why can a non-believer compliment the fruit of the spirit but believers don’t?
Struggles are like suffocation. Have you ever noticed in thrillers and horror movies when the victims are running away from the bad guys, they pant for air and another victim would shut them up by covering their mouth so they don’t make any noise that could alert the bad guy? Why would you impose suffocation on a suffocating person? And that is exactly what a lot of us are doing to ourselves! We’re suffering, but we do not want others to know! So we suffocate ourselves and we die.
I’ll end by saying, this is a delicate situation and it is imperative to always build strength into our system. If you can’t breathe, you don’t need to tell yourself you can’t breathe; you just do it, and compliment how great fresh air tastes!
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