Carnality

In my last post, I used the term carnal.  Now there is a word I probably have not used since my early days as a Christian!  Now why did that pop into mind.....

When I first came to salvation, I was 18, a nerd, I had already designed and built a race car which broke a few speed records, I had created a designer car - which went on to be quite successful in the hand built world, had almost no friends because they had all proven untrustworthy, etc.  Yeah not exactly your idea candidate for most anything other than auto mechanics or the world of computers I discovered by accident.

But, through the oddest of events found myself suddenly a Christian.  Now those whom I first were to meet and desired to "help" me become a "real" Christian had me read quite a few books, some aimed at young men.  Carnality was a reoccurring theme in several of them.

Carnality, is "of the flesh", those authors I read revolved around the lusts and sexual desires common to all young men.  Why the italics?  Because it was not very applicable to me, but did arouse a curiosity as to what on earth all of the hoopla was about!  Yeah, sort of not the point of their writings!  And, I have always known I was not like any of the other guys I hung around with.

I tried to battle this nature in my son, without success.  The wide spread pornography he was exposed to in school during grade 6 and 7, I was unaware of until it was too late.  I was able to limit his internet access, so that was good, once I understood what was going on.  But, no one could have curtailed the apparent complete lack of morals by some of the girls both in school and at church.  Sigh.  He was compromised by the "flesh" so early on.....

My mother commented, following her first Easter as part of the family, that he is a very angry young man.  Yeah, she nailed that one.  His inner nature is completely compromised by the carnality of his life, friends and existence.  And yet, you can not discuss this with him, ever, even as a teenager he would just as soon attack you as run away.  Neither were particularly wonderful events.  But, the war rages on within him - so there is hope he will be dragged back to God kicking and screaming the entire way!  And I dare say, feeling mighty stupid for not listen to his father long ago.

Last night, I told Yesfir of my now long dead friend Chrisine, she too was compromised by carnality.  When I think back on the running gags and jokes, I now understand how inappropriate they were.  I never understood she was sexually addicted.  I never understood that her "wildness" from the ate of 17 to her death were really the results of the carnality she had been overcome by.  Her destruction was what it took for God to bring her to salvation.  Her death, inevitable given her lifestyle.  Her memory I have shared with every Sunday School class and each of my daughters.  There is a high price to pay for leaving what God has laid out for your life.  For Christine, and my long estranged fiancee, it was HPV.  One mercifully died, the other continues to live on in a nightmare of pain.

Such an interesting word, such an array of applications.  Of the flesh, yeah, even with my broken nature I can understand the the attraction or draw.  Our sex soaked culture only applies this to sex and our sexual natures - almost gnostically, (body=bad, spirit=good) attempting to find both to be sin.  It is outside of marriage to be sin, but it is also how God designed us, to celebrate that nature within the confines of marriage.

But in our materialistic world, carnality also reigns - the worldliness so many Christians are sold out to.  No?  Then consider that sports is also an aberration of the carnality of this world.  Christians scream and holler about their anti-abortion campaigns, one-world-government conspiracies and just about every other situation you can think of - and yet not even see sports as also being of the world and sin.

Yet, I find my most thought provoking author, Paul, to be of the mind that "all things are lawful".  Of course we can quickly eliminate sin from that list because that is unlawful.  So, then the aspects of worldliness are lawful -  like being a sports nut - but as he continues, "not expedient".  So, yeah, you can play in the world with its distractions - just do not expect to accomplish much for God.

You gotta love Paul....

It is all in how you live your life.....