Yearning and Regret

            Tim Archer shared a link on his blog today to the New York Times and an article concerning the fallout from adultery. Written by a woman who confessed that she knew all too well the consequences of an affair (she had one earlier in her life), this writer expressed clearly the pain resulting from such a poisonous decision.

            She frankly acknowledging that illicit sex, by its very nature, appeals to one’s carnal desires and is stimulating and exciting… in the moment. She adds, however, “What you don’t know, or perhaps what you don’t allow yourself to think about, is that your life will become an unbearable mix of yearning and regret because of it. It will be difficult if not impossible to be in any one place with contentment.”

            Her words serve as an experiential reminder that God’s way is the best way. He calls us to a lifestyle that is not meant to hurt us, but designed to help us. Adultery adulterates what is meant to be unadulterated. It mixes two people together in a relationship that should not be created.

            God designed and equipped us to focus on one person of the opposite sex to love emotionally, mentally, and physically—in marriage. That is all we can handle. To add another to that mix “blows our fuses.” It fragments what was to be unbroken. No one can find contentment under such circumstances.

            While it is true to say “it’s God’s way or the highway”, I prefer to say something equally accurate, “God’s way is the best way.”

  

Here’s a link to the New York Times story “A Roomful of Yearning and Regret”-- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/fashion/12Modern.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&

Cheating Hearts

Several years ago, TIME magazine reported a study done at the University of Hawaii. An attractive member of the opposite sex approached college students. After a brief introduction, the students were asked one of three questions:

                        1. Would you go out on a date with me tonight?

                        2. Would you go back [with me] to my apartment?

                        3. Would you have sex with me?

            The male response varied from the female response. Here is how each answered the question of the corresponding number:

                                                Women (yes)                  Men (yes)

                        1.                         50%                             50%

                        2.                         6%                               69%

                        3.                         0%                               75%

            The magazine noted that Charles Darwin considered Man to be a moral species since human beings could compare their past and future actions and motives, and correspondingly approve or disapprove of them.

            “In this sense,” TIME said, “yes we are moral. We have at least the technical capacity to lead an examined life: self-awareness, memory, foresight and judgment. Still, subjecting ourselves to moral scrutiny and adjusting our behavior accordingly is hardly a reflex. We are potentially moral animals-which is more than any other animal can say-but we are not naturally moral animals. The first step to being moral is to realize how thoroughly we aren't."

            These are fascinating words coming from a secular magazine. Better yet was the title of the article—“Our Cheating Hearts.” Does this title connote an editorial statement in a supposedly neutral magazine’s investigative reporting?