The Madness of “Mine”

Every Monday we’ll post something to do with maintaining sexual purity. Hope it helps.

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The Madness of “Mine”

I was driving in the front seat trying really hard to be the driver

Thinking that I was making real good time

But always winding up a late arriver

But now I’ve been riding in the back seat and I find it is a very great relief

Now I’m trying out the back seat

And I’m leaving all the driving to The Chief.

– “Front Seat Back Seat” by Chuck Girard and Tom Coomes”

That was a popular Christian song when I was a kid, and it still speaks to me. Because not a day goes by without my feeling challenged to decide who’s in charge and act accordingly. Keeping it clean in an unclean world is, after all, largely about ownership and authority. Who owns this body, with its millions of impulses and wants, and who’s the final authority on what I accept or refuse; do or resist?

Easily answered; not so easily lived out. My desires will take me in all directions today if I let them; the world will add its suggestions, and the devil will chime in with a few of his own. I am tempted at this point to say, “So let’s you and I consistently say No to all three, and rack up days, weeks, then months of sexual purity!” And I’d be right, technically and completely.

But really, isn’t there more to it than crossing off our checklist at day’s end and saying “Good job. No porn; minimal naughty looks; only a few bad thoughts; no masturbation?” All of that matters but, in light of the concept of ownership, it just isn’t enough. The question isn’t whether or not I sexually transgressed today, important as that is. The broader and paramount question is,  Did I live a yielded life today, considering Him in all my decisions; staying aware of Him; striving to let Him drive, as it were, my speech, thoughts, actions? That, to my thinking, is what it’s about.

Paul appealed along these lines to the Romans when he said “I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice —“ (Romans 12:1)

Present, as in (according to Strong’s concordance) “To place a person or thing at one’s disposal.”  Here’s how that works for me:

1. God has purposes today.
2. He wants me to be utilized in fulfilling some of those purposes.
3. A fruitful day, then, isn’t determined just by what sin I avoided, but also by what purposes of God I was yielded to, and was therefore a part of.

That clashes with the madness of “Mine”, that ancient attitude so deeply ingrained in us which insists we have the right to do with our bodies as we please – to say whatever we feel, indulge what we crave, call our own shots. A disciple is, after all , a follower. He follows his Master’s teachings and ways and, indeed, His master Himself.  Thus I’m commissioned to take authority over this body, under His authority, answering to Him at the end of the day for how I managed what I’ve been trusted with.

So may we all keep it clean today, for the sake of purity and, more significantly, as a part of our general presentation of ourselves as we say this morning, from the heart, “I’m at Your disposal.”