Dec 30, 2014
Young Adult
— Karissa St.Clair
The Connecting Church
Milton, WI
There once was a little girl who was filled with joy and happiness. She loved Jesus and loved who He was creating her to be. She had no doubt in her mind about whether or not God loved her, and she rested in His loving arms daily. Then, a dark cloud came over her and sucked away her joy. She ran away from God, not understanding what was happening and thinking what she did was her fault. She was filled with grief, guilt, and shame. That little girl was me when I was 7 years old.
At that time I was sexually abused by one of my family members. That started a cycle of sin that lead to hurt and pain that ripped the innocence from me throughout my life. It took years for me to forgive God, forgive myself, and to understand that what had happened to me was not my fault. I look back on everything and I thank God because this whole circumstance eventually drew me so much closer to Him than I was when I was a little girl. But what I can’t get out of my head is one question: Where was the church? I was always told “the church isn’t a building, it’s a group of people.” So I ask again, where was the church? Why is the church hiding from sexual sin? Why are we not grabbing ahold of this and exposing it for what it really is? In 1 Corinthians 6:18 it says, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body but an immoral man sins against his own body.” Sexual sin is crushing people from the inside out. It hurts not only other people but also yourself. There are people sitting in our pews, hurting, with no where to go, thinking that they have nobody that understands what they are going through. And the church isn’t talking about it! Why aren’t we talking about sexual abuse, pornography addictions, sex outside of marriage, masturbation, and things of the like? The church needs to stop hiding in the dark and start bringing these things into the Light. We need to be open, loving, understanding, and good listeners.
The little girl in the story brought her circumstance into the Light. There is hope. God gets it. Jesus was a man who lived on earth for 33 years. If you are being tempted sexually or in other ways, well you are in good company because Jesus was definitely tempted too. So if you are going through this, He understands everything that we go through, including sexual temptation. He understands when you’re hurting because of sexual abuse and He wants to help you through it. Jesus is the Light that can heal the pain and scars of sexual sin. God wants to, and has forgiven you, so that you don’t have to live in shame anymore. We have a responsibility as a church to make an environment that is open to any kind of sin, so that it can be brought into the Light and repented of. Church, we are in a battle. We are in God’s army so we cannot lose. Let’s put on our spiritual armor and get ready to fight because when our commander-in-chief tells me to fight, I’m going to fight. Sex isn’t a bad thing, but the devil twisted it to be a bad thing. We can cause some damage if we start bringing this stuff to the Light. Who is with me? Because I’m done playing Satan’s game.
