Day Two

Confess.

We have a wrong notion of confession, the meaning of the word has changed somewhat. When I write confession, the idea of a detective sweating out the details of a crime springs to mind. Or perhaps an old timey booth in a church with a priest on one side and a sinner on the other, reciting a laundry list of things he’s done wrong.

And that’s not what I’m going for here.

Confess means to agree with God, to get on the same side of the issue with Him.

Once more I need to remind myself that this sin of ours is a work of the flesh. And my flesh doesn’t want to accept responsibility for itself. Perhaps you can relate. We try desperately to convince ourselves that masturbation isn’t so bad. Everyone does it. Oh, and here’s a study that shows the incidence of prostate cancer is lower for those who masturbate regularly. It’s actually healthy! And they fail to check a few minor details like the study relied heavily on priests and monks and prolonged periods of abstinence (like 40 or 50 years — not two days).

I firmly believe that masturbation, in and of itself is fine. And I get a lot of grief when I state that. But hear me out.

Ask yourself why you’re masturbating. What thoughts are running through your mind? If you’re contemplating the Rams making another Super Bowl run, that’s fine. Weird. But fine. If you’re mentally going over your grandma’s chocolate chip cookie recipe while masturbating, again, that’s fine. And again, weird.

But for 99.9% of us we are masturbating because we are overcome with lust. And therein lies the sin. If I buy a new car with money I robbed from the bank, the car isn’t the sin.

So, Fred. Thanks for all this.

Got a point?

We need to confess. We need to agree with God. We are here because our lust is out of control and we must take steps of repentance to set things right. So perhaps this little screed should have been day one.

Will you agree with God today?

Will that change what you consume?