Head Space

This is taken directly from the book Sex God by Rob Bell:

Lust is always built on a lie.  And so for you and me to be free from lust, we have to begin by understanding the lie and where it comes from and why it can be so alluring.

The word lust in the Greek language is epithumia.  It's actually two words in Greek:  the word epi, which means "in," and the word thumos, which refers to "the mind."

In the mind.

Think about the head space we give to things and people we want.  It's easy for our thoughts to be dominated by a craving.  We're in a meeting, we're taking a walk, we're studying, we're doing jobs around the house, and the whole time our brain is miles away trying to figure out how to get it.

It takes ahold of us.

We are not free.

Lust is slavery.

If I want something to the point that I can't conceive being content without it, then it owns me.

One writer in the Scriptures puts it like this, "'I have the right to do anything'-but I will not be mastered by anything."

We are free to do anything we want.  But because I can doesn't mean I should.  There is a massive distance between "can" and "best."

We're addictive creatures.  We try things, we experiment, we explore, and certain things hook us.  They get their tentacles in us, and we can't get away from them.  What started out as freedom can quickly become slavery.  Often freedom is seen as the ability to do whatever you want.  But freedom isn't being able to have whatever we crave.  Freedom is going without whatever we crave and being fine with it.

Thanks Rob.

Anybody that knows me knows that lust is a big one for me.  This hit me really hard and I just thought I would share it.