You’re likely a good person living a decent life, making a living, and working hard. You go to church on Sundays and pray before your meals. But you have a secret, a hidden part of your life that you’d be ashamed for anyone to find out about. The thing with secrets is that they eventually come out.
Instead of hiding, let’s have a difficult conversation, a real talk about secrets and shame and sex and a lot of things in between. Difficult conversations don’t have to be difficult, but they do have to be honest.
In today’s episode and her book, Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Reading This, Lina shares her struggle with sexual temptation with openness and vulnerability. She points out where the church and purity culture have failed our communities. Lina gets real about the excuses we make and the lies we tell ourselves, even when our behaviors point to a larger problem.
This is a no-holds-barred discussion on why Christians still struggle with sexual sin and what the church needs to be doing to support Christians and the community at large. Most importantly, you’ll see that despite our constant failures as humans, Jesus doesn’t ask us to be perfect. He just asks us to be His.
If you’re going to have a difficult conversation, you might as well have it with a doctor.
Quotes:
We talk a lot about authenticity, but we are fake.
There is a disconnect between the reality and how we project reality.
I don’t want a superficial relationship with Jesus.
The biggest struggle we are having is temptation because of our phones.
Why do I tend to gravitate to the sin I hate?
Therapy is not the answer to our problems; Jesus is.
I want to be close to the heart of God.
A lot of Christianity tends to be contractual.
If you experience big disappointment, God will break in with an epiphany. The epiphany grew out of the pain.
How much was attached to Christianity instead of Christ?
The spiritual disciplines came with an ulterior motive. As low as I’ve been, Jesus was with me.
The disciplines don’t save us; Jesus does.
Christ is the gift.
To whom shall we go?
Position yourself to see the goodness of God.
Psalm 22
Jesus experienced pain, too.
