In the 12th episode of Voices, we catch up with Josh from the band Showbread. Check out the video and interview below. To find out more about Josh and his band click here. Showbread just released a brand new album called Cancer last week get it here.
The road vs. at home
Josh Dies: I guess in a lot of ways its the same as far as temptation and lust goes. Bands in my experience, our band, faces the same kind of temptations that they would at home and the platform is slightly different and it depends on your personality type and what exactly tempts you or causes you to lust. When you’re in a band you could have the opportunity to be promiscuous or at best to be promiscuous with your personality and your heart, so to speak and at worst promiscuous with your body. I don’t know about other people but that’s not something you see a lot of when you’re at home sitting in your room. Girls and guys come up to guys in bands and say “Oh you’re so great”, not that that happens to us either way but there’s something about having people come up to you with instant admiration or there’s a level of respect that’s there right off the grip that you don’t have in other places because they’re like “I just saw you perform this concert so now I have this instant level of admiration for you”. It can play into a lot of people’s egos and pride and arrogance and make people do foolish things and not necessarily sleeping around, though that can be a byproduct of it but behaving in a way that you normally wouldn’t behave, making yourself become a person that you don’t even like. I know a lot of guys who will say “I just hate this idiot that I become when girls are around me and feeding my ego but I can’t help it because I like the admiration”. In a sense, that’s a lot different on tour. As far as the temptation that’s available to all people at all times through technology and your own imagination, is the same as home as it is on tour. Maybe on tour you have a lot more time to daydream because you sit in a van all day.
Accountablity.
Josh Dies: I think that among Christian communities and within the church that there’s this horrible idea that people that are in ministry positions put on themselves that they don’t want to put out there that they’re struggling with something unpleasant because it will defile my ministry or discredit what I’m trying to say. in reality everyone has all kinds of problems all the time and we should be able to be like “I’m going through some horrible crap right now and I need your help”, regardless of what position you’re in. I don’t think that people see that as a character flaw but strength in a person’s character, especially within leaders. Showbread is ministry oriented and all about giving hope to people and bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I would very much like to be able to say to any group of people, friends, fans family, that I have a small problem or an extraordinary problem and I need help with it. It shouldn’t be “Oh you’re in this Christian band and you struggle with that? What the heck is wrong with you?” It shouldn’t be the way it works. It shouldn’t be the way that we play out how we’re going to confess to what we’re dealing with, worried about what people are going to think or say. The truth is the truth, it just depends on whether or not we’re voicing it or not. Accountability is easy to get within your group if you’re willing to be honest with each other about anything from small Christian-y problems of “I didn’t read my Bible today” or extreme problems like “I’m despairing in my heart or struggling with lust or an addiction of some other kind or I’m bitter.” Just have family around you to lift you up and build you up, that’s what the church is all about. Tour can be an incredible and excellent place to make that community come to life but at the same time it can be really hard if you just let it get away from you for a second. our band has had a million different people in it, its been going on for a million years now and I’ve seen how easy it is to just start to hold back from what you’re letting into the group and little cliques will start to form. So and so will resent so and so for their problems and some are looking down on others for their problems and before long its like “What the heck are we even doing?”
You just have to admit your imperfections and be willing to carry each other’s burdens the way that Jesus carries ours. When its executed properly, its fantastic. At home now, for the first time, my wife and I have a community of friends and a church where we have accountability and edification the same way I have it on tour because before that it was like we got off tour and went home to Southeast Georgia and there’s just nothing here for us except for each other. I’ve seen what its like to have great accountability on tour and no accountability on tour. When it comes to things like sexual temptation and lust and pornography and things like that, I’ve seen how easy it is for people to carry on habits like this in the middle of something that you wouldn’t think would be possible to carry on during like driving around the country playing concerts in churches. Its like “When do you have time to look at pornography?” You can find time for anything. You can struggle with anything at any place at any time. Transparency and honesty are absolutely crucial to functioning as a human being. with me personally, I come from a really squeaky clean Christian background, I’ve never done any drugs, never drank any alcohol, never smoked anything, my parents didn’t let me see rated R movies so when we got out on tour, doing secular tours with big bands that party, it wasn’t a temptation for us because it wasn’t ever anything we were into in the first place.
ON some level, every human being, not just every man because the conceit is that men are the only ones that struggle with sexual desires-every human being at least faces some amount of sexual temptation because we’re built with a slant toward the sexual, with a good reason. with technology and culture its just so easy to pervert and exploit those things. before I was married, those things were available but by the grace of God and friends and community we just helped each other avoid that kind of crap, not perfect by any means but the best we could. I think after being married there was a different kind of conceit that I became aware of that “Well I’m married, I’m just not going to cheat on my wife, it won’t happen”. That’s not really something I have to be aware of or be on my toes about. I haven’t had any desire to be unfaithful and I don’t constantly eyeball or ogle girls or anything like that. God has just made me aware recently of my own imperfections in every sense of the word and never being so arrogant to say “Not me, that’s one sin I’m completely above”.
And just being aware of how clearly and concisely the Bible says “Flea from sexual immorality”, run for your freaking life. The way it devastates families relationships-for me as Christian it makes sense that sex is this beautiful wonderful thing that its so powerful that its like a fire and as soon as it gets out of control its just devastating. I’m just humbled by the constant need to be kept under control and for me that direction and that control and that comfort comes from Jesus. I’m at the mercy of the Holy Spirit at all times to be on my guard against sin and the enemy. even though its not something that’s barring down on my back like I want to cheat on my wife or look at porn but know that I’m never above sexual immorality or temptation, being ready to run, like Forest.
Advice to those struggling.
Josh Dies: My advice to anyone who is struggling with an addiction to pornography or sexual immorality and wants to get out of it would be to make giant gestures to get out of it. I think a lot of people who are struggling to get out of it are wanting to beat it on their own or want to be able to beat it and still maintain the comfort level that they want to maintain. More often than not, its probably not going to happen that way. people are going to have to get brave enough to get rid of computers and cut off certain relationships and friendships and make a gesture big enough to say” I want to be free from this”, not just “I’d like to be free but I’d much rather maintain my comfort zone”. My advice would be to run for your life because in my experience you will not make it out unharmed. Not to be scary or a doomsday type thing but in all honesty if you want to be free you’ve got to get free. For me, I use the software from xxxchurch.com, X3 Watch, my wife uses it, and all the guys in our band use it. Its a really simple way where if you look at a naughty website, all these people are going to get an email saying that you did. even for someone who its not at this point, not like a constant struggle or anything, believe me there’s absolutely no desire in me whatsoever for my wife to get an email saying that I looked at bug butts or something like that so even something like that, its a big gesture for a lot of people. You have to make a big gesture, make big steps to get free, and be willing to be free.