I’ve heard it said that porn will “take you farther than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay.”
That statement certainly rings true in my case. Unfortunately, the story of how porn first entered my life isn’t an uncommon one:
I was 13 years old – innocently surfing the web after wasting an hour or so playing some pointless online game. I opened up a search engine and typed something in. Honestly, I can’t even recall the words I entered. I scrolled past a link and skimmed over the description. It mentioned some things I had never encountered before on the internet, so naturally, I was curious. I certainly had no idea at that moment that my next few clicks would have life-altering consequences – that the link my cursor was hovering over would not only open a webpage but also an entire world of easily accessible internet pornography. It was a world I never knew existed, and ignorance was bliss. I’ve often wished I could go back to that state.
Fast forward years from that moment and you’d meet a teenager, and then a young adult, whose struggle with the cycle of porn was unknown to most. If you’ve ever struggled with porn, you know the cycle I’m referring to – failure, repentance, failure, etc. It’s incredible how we can be so blind sometimes to an addiction that has us totally wrapped around its fingers. Porn is an addiction especially good at keeping itself alive and strong.
Freedom did not come easily. I’m not sure it ever does. Daily vigilance is a non-negotiable.
I remember very clearly praying with a good friend of mine at the end of a church service. At that moment, I recognized that I couldn’t get out on my own. I needed to get closer to God, and I needed the help of others. That moment set me on the path to freedom.
I don’t exactly remember how I first found XXXchurch, but I remember it being a beacon of light into a very hopeless situation. Reading the blogs, watching the videos, putting the resources to use – I realized that I wasn’t alone in my struggle and that there was hope. There was a light at the end of the tunnel.
This is why I write. I love the mission of XXXchurch: Awareness, Prevention, Recovery.
If your story is in any way similar to mine, I want to encourage you today. I want to tell you there is hope. And I want to urge you to do a few things:
Draw close to God. He loves you, and wants to set you free.
If you need help, start here. And check out these incredible resources from XXXchurch.
Don’t let your story end in defeat. Let God redeem, rewrite, and restore it. He can, and He will.