The upward journey might not always be worth the downward fall. Unlike my wife, I am not a huge fan of rollercoasters, especially ones with a big first hill. That drop freaks me out. To me the journey up the hill isn’t worth the fall. I can deal with the rest of the ride, the twist, turns and speed. I love that aspect of the rollercoaster, but it’s not worth the initial fall.
When we look at porn is the journey worth the fall? Every rollercoaster scared me as a kid, now, not so much. As a kid everything looked big and scary to me, as an adult some are laughable what I used to be scared of. When we look at porn, what we first started looking at might not be what we end up at. There is a process when things become worse. People normally do not start out with the worst stuff first. Porn can start small, looking at an ad or a swimsuit edition of a sports magazine yet end up so much worse.
In the Bible there is a messed up story about Ammon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13. In this chapter we find a guy Amnon who wants to sleep with his half-sister Tamar. Amnon was told by his cousin Jonadab how to make this happen, to fake being sick and request that Tamar tend to him. Tamar was taking care of Amnon who in turn takes the lust he had for his sister tried to rape her. Tamar spoke up in verses 12-13… “No, my brother!” she said to him. “Don’t force me! Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing. What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.” Amnon did not listen, raped her then immediately hated her and kicked her out.
This story didn’t happen overnight. It took planning and help for Amnon to do this ruthless act. With porn there is a spiral that we go down. It doesn’t start out that bad. Its a little rollercoaster, but that doesn’t thrill most of us and it turns into something huge. Porn can destroy more stuff then we can imagine. It never starts out large but can end up being more of a problem then we think.
If you still don’t feel like it’s a major problem or it’s not that bad. Try to stop looking at porn for just one week. In a time of lent, try giving up porn for a month on your own. If you can’t, you might need to seek help. The downward spiral can get a lot worse. That little challenge from a small rollercoaster can turn out so much more. Unlike a rollercoaster, this can have long damaging effects.