I\’ve gotten a few messages from friends and family saying they wonder where I\’m going with this blog series on sex. (Side note: it is a personal goal to get as many people as possible to feel comfortable enough talking about this topic to comment publicly. Right now, public commenters are the minority by a wide margin.) It occurred to me that I haven\’t been all that clear about my perspective on this. The fact is that I don\’t know where I\’m going with it, either. I do not have an end point or goal in mind. Call it a performance piece. Call it an act of faith. I consider it both.

Let me take a step back and tell you how I see God work. That crazy book called the Bible is hands-down the most masterful knitting together of images and themes across historical occurrences over centuries that ever… oh wait, it\’s the only one. There\’s nothing like it. When I studied literary theory in school, I heard about (and from) Christians who were skeptical of the discipline because theorists loved to point out how many different authors there were in the Bible. People got all worked up because someone said that maybe Moses hadn\’t actually written the books that centuries of tradition attributed to him. For my part, I\’m always amazed that, with so many writers, the Bible is so unified. If you don\’t believe me, find a Bible with footnotes for the cross-references. Every page has like a half dozen or more. And that\’s the basics. Pick up a study Bible or commentary and you\’ll begin to see more and more. There aren\’t too many authors with that kind of complex cohesiveness (Shakespeare and James Joyce come to mind). But to do that with (at minimum) dozens of authors over centuries, and to have an Author personality that shines through all of the writers\’ voices… If you study literature like I do, it really beggars belief. It is truly an amazing book.

But not only did God author the Bible, He\’s the master storyteller of my life. I quoted this passage in an earlier post: \”And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.\” (2 Corinthians 3:3) There are many, many verses about people being \”God\’s workmanship\” (Ephesians 2:1), about God being our \”author and finisher\” (Hebrews 12:2). The way He ties images and events together in the Bible? He does that in my life, too.

I believe in that so wholeheartedly that I don\’t feel like I need to know my endpoint to start writing about this. My Author knows where it\’s going. If I give the process to Him, He\’ll carry it to its goal (Philippians 1:6). I believe that God can speak to me and those around me through my circumstances. I believe my testimony of His work of grace in my life is the most powerful thing I can narrate, and I believe He uses my failings as well as my successes. I\’m not afraid of me being wrong, because I have seen Him work more powerfully through my weakness than through my strength (2 Corinthians 12:9). So I narrate and leave the conclusion to Him. As Oswald Chambers says in today\’s reading, \”The well of your incompleteness is deep, but make the effort and look away to Him.\” When I make room for Him, He shows up. Every time.

The questions I\’m asking in this blog series? They\’re questions I\’m exploring as I write these posts. I started this blog series because I was dating someone I was really fond of (we\’ve since broken up), and struggling to find a path that honored God with my body AND my heart. I had also started writing some parts of my life into my divorce memoir where it was glaringly clear that sometimes the things you do to avoid sexual immorality can be worse. You know, like pushing a boyfriend who wasn\’t ready (and, in retrospect, probably wasn\’t REALLY interested) into marriage so we\’d have an acceptable outlet for sex. I don\’t see anything God-honoring about that.

The Bible says that God doesn\’t tempt us. But my pastor and another wise friend pointed out that He does TEST us. God does reveal when something in me heart or head is off as an opportunity for me to stretch and grow. Temptation uses my desires to stretch me toward disobedience. Testing uses my desires to stretch me toward obedience. Either way, there is tension there as I\’m shaped to a new mold. If I look back on how God has worked in my life, He is usually very slow, careful, and deliberate when it comes to unveiling sin. It is almost never an overnight process, because body, heart, and soul have to step out of it together. When I feel inclined to do something I know is wrong, my first reaction is no longer to panic and try to pull the emergency break. I pull out the desire in front of me, prayerfully examine my heart with God, and try to figure out how I got there to begin with, how to get all the parts of me dancing to a different rhythm.

So, this blog series is me doing that. It\’s me taking step after faltering step, nudging my foot forward and around with each one, waiting to put my weight on it until I can feel the rock of Truth under it. And sometimes getting it wrong. It\’s my working the Truth into my life as it happens, with God alongside. (Philippians 2:12) Lucky you, dear Reader. You get a front-row seat. Better grab the popcorn.