Part of The Love Chapters series

I sat down, looked at her and said, “I don’t know, lately I have been struggling with lust”.

Internally, I was shocked at the randomness of the statement, petrified that I had said it out loud, surprised that it was said to another person, and even more dumbfounded by the fact that I felt no shame, panic or ounce of regret at the confession.

It was said simply as a fact. Just as the morning sunrise is an indisputable fact, I was struggling with lust.

Then she responded, “In fact, me too”, and I felt my heart and mind catapult somewhere out of our galaxy. Shocked that she had a response for my randomness and somehow dumbfounded that another Christian would feel the way I did. I was foolishly surprised that I wasn’t alone in my temptations.

Then again, she too is Woman. As long as we are Woman with normal functioning bodies, we will feel and have desire.

Church has somehow nourished a culture of shame. Everyone self-demonizes their own thoughts and struggles, and they would do anything for secrecy. The little that manages to get out into the open becomes scandal and gossip, further feeding the culture of secrecy.

Yet, sin grows and thrives in secrecy. From a tiny thought and temptation that is “kept to one’s self” blooms full grown sin that destroys lives. Even worse, sin causes us to hide from our relationship with God, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Church – a family of like-minded believers – is where temptation should be confessed. It is where sin should be called out; to strengthen and equip, rather than shame a person.

Church is the very place where mercy should prevail over judgment. It is where one should be able to seek and find genuine love and assistance in the face of sin and its consequences.

It is where I should be able to rightly say, “I have been struggling with lust”.

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.
James 5:16-18 (MSG)