People are always talking about sex. I’m an ob/gyn doctor, so my
job is highly dependent on sex. I have to talk about it all the time. I really do enjoy educating young people about it.
I always like to discuss what sex was meant for. I mean, the world is full of
answers and tips, but mostly it offers a bunch of lies. Sex, as portrayed by
the world around us, seems so glamorous, but really it is a far less amazing
thing that it was meant to be. It was meant to be great. But the twisted nature
of it leaves it beautiful on the outside, but rotten on the inside. Distortion
of it seems to span the globe, like an unacknowledged plague. Very literally
bringing problems which, when combined, are like a plague. I see it here so
much. The effects of the twisted, adulterated version are seen in the patients
lined up for clinic. Sex was designed by God to be enjoyable, and there isn’t
anything wrong with it – that is unless somebody uses it incorrectly. But when
used in different ways than God originally planned, mercy, does it go bad.
-She comes to sit in my office at the age of 39 and have a
conversation about how her cervical cancer (the only known sexually transmitted
cancer) is inoperable. Then we will talk about what “inoperable” means. It
means that this is what is going to take her life. Tears fill her eyes as she
asks me what she will do with the children she is raising. How will they make
it without her?
-She comes to the office and talk about how she’s been trying to
have children for 12 years. She has had medications, and surgery, and healing
prayer services, and witchcraft. But the baby won’t come. And I’ll tell her how
the tubes are scarred. She wonders why. I respond it is from a sexual
infection, often many years ago. Most of the time, she didn’t even know that it
was waging war inside of her, but it irreversibly damaged her tubes. Now the
egg cannot make it into the place where it should sit in the uterus.
-Or she comes in with an ectopic pregnancy. I open her belly to
save her life. It’s tensely filled with blood. We are giving IV fluids, but her
heart has a hard time keeping up with the active loss. That scarred tube caught
the pregnancy, and it grew inside there until finally the tube could stretch no
more. It ruptured open, began spewing blood, and is now endangering the mother’s life. The
next morning, I tell her that we had to take out the fallopian tube. She wants
to know what made the scars. I have the STD talk again.
-Or, she really hasn’t done anything. But her husband is with 3
other women. She lives in fear of HIV. But there’s nothing she can do. Why not
leave? Well, because the poverty around her is swallowing her up. She doesn’t
have any way to make enough to support herself and her kids. He beats her. And
she doesn’t get to choose whether she will have sex since she has little power
as a woman.
-Or, one of the prostitutes
who usually don’t make it to my office. She wishes she could have a better
life, but can’t get out. Her family needs money. Everybody needs money. There’s
no other work. So, she decides to just try to be careful. But its only gonna
make $2 with a condom, and $10 without one. I mean, $10 could really help…
-And I could list a thousand others with other sexually related problems, but I'll spare you.
And you read about them and think that they are people a world
away. And yes, they are. Fewer resources, less opportunity. But many of the
problems are still the same in my hometown and in this new town. Sexuality is
idolized all over the world it seems. Perverted, and with the safety of the
protective walls of marriage taken away, it leaves physical scars, emotional
scars. It was meant to be unifying between two people, freeing them to a level
of vulnerability within commitment that was unparalleled. It doesn’t make
marriage perfect, or easy. But it is a symbol of the commitment within
relationship. How far less it is to settle for a few moments of pleasure, when
so much greater was the original offer. And how devastating to find that the
easier road had so many unrecognized, painful consequences. God offers more to
His people. He demands more from them. And His ways are infinitely better than
this world can offer. We need to work to redeem the generations coming up. They
are taught by the world that sex is ultimate. But Christ is ultimate. And
thankfully, He has made a wonderful place for sex, but it is not going to
satisfy outside of His intention for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment