It’s easy to bemoan the decline of our sexual wholeness, whether it’s due to our own sins or the culture around us. And while naturally want to stop this erosion, it’s typically just the symptom and not the problem itself. We must bring a proper balance and harmony back into our lives to counteract the ongoing threat of sexual erosion.
Like the human body, God has created nature to work in harmony with each other. And havoc is created one aspect is out of balance with the rest.
For instance, wolves kill elk. Without the wolves the elk would become overpopulated. Overpopulated elk would then decimate the local vegetation and make an area more vulnerable to soil erosion. While this erosion causes problems in its own right, it’s the result of the wolves no longer having their proper place in the ecosystem. With the wolves in place, the elk population stays in check – minimizing erosion and allowing the ecosystem to flourish.
And it’s this same dynamic that plays out for us sexually. For example, pornography and other sexual vices are often best seen as symptoms and not the core problem. And while this perversion of our sexual selves can certainly cause many problems in its own right, we must go upstream to consider what is out of balance or missing in the ecology of our souls that allows this erosion to continue.
For some, it’s the lack of meaningful creative expressions or simply the freedom and power to participate in works of goodness. Others are missing an eye for beauty and how to have a holy gaze without apology. And still others are searching for place to bare their naked souls without shame.
Whatever it looks like, these deeper desires might actually not be sexual in nature. But, without a meaningful integration, it’s easy for our sexual thoughts and desires to become overpopulated. And this opens the door to many distortions as we desperately consume more and more without any checks or balances.
Honoring our core, and sometimes wild, desires allows for our sexual self to remain in its proper place and thrive.
In the end, sexual erosion doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We must go upstream to consider what might be missing or out of balance in our life. Restoring our core desires then allows our sexual self to flourish as God intended.
