July 28
Proper
Even when things are proper, they aren’t proper everywhere under all circumstances. Throwing, catching, and hitting a ball are all proper at a baseball park, but wouldn’t be proper in a movie theater. Not that there’s anything wrong with baseball. It’s just that it belongs outdoors. Yeah, I know a lot of stadiums are indoor stadiums, but as a baseball purist, I stand by that last statement-it belongs outdoors.
OK, I’ll allow that it is still appropriate in an indoor stadium-it’s not the same. There’s nothing wrong with playing baseball in a park or in a field either. Some of my fondest baseball memories are in sandlots, not stadiums. But you’ll have to agree with me that baseball doesn’t belong in a movie theater.
Movie theaters are a great place for, well, showing movies, but they would be a terrible place for playing baseball. For one thing, the stage just isn’t big enough to set up the bases, the floors are too slick and ceilings are too low. It just wouldn’t work out.
I hesitate over trivializing it by comparing it to baseball, but the truth remains-sex is appropriate and proper, but only in the right context. While some people wouldn’t put any boundaries on sex, most people would. Some would say it is only appropriate if the two people are in love. Others would add that it is only appropriate if safety precautions are used. The scripture is clear about its teaching for the proper context for sex-the safety of a loving, committed, caring, monogamous marriage relationship.
It isn’t that the scriptures are prudish. (Have you read the Song of Solomon lately?) It is that it places such a high value on sex that it doesn’t want people to denigrate themselves with risky behavior that can negatively impact their bodies, their minds and their souls.
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
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