No really, that is a REAL Blog Prompt Generator topic.
Since it's relevant, (and I have already written a blog about vaccines, which you can find here), I am gonna take my 2 cents about Fifty Shades of Grey and place them here.
I have not read Shades of Gray, nor have I watched trailers, nor have have I peeked curiously at all the merchandise end caps. All I know about it has come from different blog posts and conversations I have read/heard. I know it is about some chick who gets involved with an aggressive, BDSM guy who wears well tailored suits. My understanding is that he takes what he wants and she lets him.
First off, I did not read the book, because as a Jesus follower I just didn't think it was something that I needed to mentally ingest. Here are some reasons why:
1. I worked at a porn store for a time. I already have enough terrible, disgusting, degrading imagery burned into my grey matter. As far as I am concerned, this story is just socially acceptable housewife porn and porn in any capacity utterly grosses me out. It is worth mentioning, I am not cool with my husband viewing porn, so it would be hypocritical for me to read it. Porn is porn.
2. I don't need anything to make me feel like whatever I have going on with my husband in our bedroom isn't enough. I am enough. He is enough. If we wanna get a new kind of freaky, we don't need fictional prompting.
3. If Jesus came back and I was on my couch reading Fifty Shades of Grey I would be completely humiliated. "Oh hi Jesus, you're back! Have you heard of bondage, domination, sadism or masochism?"
There is nothing good in this book. There is nothing that will build me, lift me, breath life into me or even prompt critical thinking. It is simply another something to not only distract me from what matters, but perhaps cause me to be non complacent with the relationship I do have, and prompt me to lust for other things/people/etc. God says in Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." I may be wrong, but I am fairly certain none of these things are gonna be popping off the pages of Fifty Shades of Grey.
God also says in Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." Now, Biblically speaking this isn't talking about your heart as the anatomical thing beating in your chest. This isn't "Guard your heart because heart disease is a real killer". This is also not "Guard your heart from all those meanie opposite sex types who might break it." In this context the "heart" is the seat of the bodies intellect or moral functioning. So what is being said is basically, "Guard where your thoughts are. Guard what goes in because that stuff penetrates your thinking. How you act and feel and what you do will be effected by what gets in there."
And there in lies the issue.
You cannot be uneffected by what you spend your time doing. Reading, watching, listening to, talking about. It is all going in and it is shaping how you think and feel. It isn't just Fifty Shades of Grey. It's cable television. It's music. It's any number of romantic novels written to mentally whisk women away from a dull marriage, >insert image of Fabio here<. And sometimes it is SO innocent. Do you know how many women watched the Notebook and left fantasizing about something other than what they had? You can't escape it really. Unless you swear off everything pop culture, and good luck getting away from it unless you plan on moving to a third world country sometime in the near future.
We are all guilty of escapism and sometimes it really is harmless. But we need to recognize when it isn't. We need to listen to the still small voice instead of all the booming ones coming from radio and TV and friends and coworkers. To be really real for a moment, I am always particularly convicted about overtly sexual stuff because of my history and because lust is a huge struggle for me. I KNOW this about myself and I make choices accordingly. So I ask you:
What are your convictions and are you heeding them or drowning them out because they don't fit pop culture?
If you've stuck this out- awesome I know it has been a little all over the place. I will leave you with this:
1. If you read the book and plan on seeing the movie- whatev. What you do is between you and Jesus and I ain't got no kinda time to worry bout it because I got my own crap to take up with that guy. So, no judgement.
2. What consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms is their business. Chips dips chains whips- consensual is consensual no matter how freaky you or I might find it to be. So, no judgement.
3. Jesus loves you despite your book or bedroom choices. So, no judgement.
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