My Bad. . .

Let me first say that I am humbled and shamefaced. I believe that I said, a few posts back, that I would never let myself go two months without blogging here. And as I look back now, it has been three since I last graced your computer screen. So as it was said so many times in the 90s (and I still hate this phrase), my bad.

Life has been eventful, but since my blog has been my journal, I couldn't exactly tell you all that has happened, you'll just have to trust me. It has been a rather dry time spiritually, but that was my fault. God had some stuff that He wanted to deal with in my life and I tried to barter with Him (To hear some great sermons on that, check out the "Games People Play" series (3 Parts) by Pastor Matt Chandler - http://bit.ly/2MFLV2 ). Anyway, I finally dealt with that last week and God has been powerful to show me more areas in my life where I need to take more steps toward Him and away from my flesh.

For those of you who haven't seen a "RedBox" DVD rental place, it is a brilliant idea. You rent a movie for a day for a dollar. If you have it for 2 days, it is $2. If you keep it for another day, $3, and on and on (That is all kind of a sidenote. This story isn't about that, just a heads up for inexpensive movie rentals). Well after going to Kroger with a friend, I grabbed a movie from RedBox (the first time I had ever done that) that she had just seen and told me how brilliant it was. The movie was "I Love You, Man" and it was brilliant. I remember seeing the trailer several months ago and thinking of how good a movie it would be. When it came out, it was rated R, prettymuch for language and some sexual references. I thought, how bad can it be, right?

The movie was great. I loved the storyline and the acting was incredible. If you know me at all, you know that I'm a "Bromance" guy, that my guy friends are like brother to me and that I love them. This movie mirrored my life at certain points and the comedy was hilarious. I highly recommend this movie. . . . .when it comes to TV in a few years. There were a few scenes and conversations (and a ton of language) that they could have done without and because of all that, as good as it was, I couldn't enjoy this movie. I can deal with a little language here and there, but this was too much for me to handle.

I watched it on Saturday and on Sunday at church, my pastor mentioned a blog post he wrote a while back called "Inches Become Miles" (check it out here - http://bit.ly/3kdKDF). In this post, which I highly recommend, he talked about a similar experience with a movie he had. . .

"And that got me thinking…how often do we allow Satan to pull us away from the Lord little by little? The problem is that when we ease up on our values just a little bit, that allowance then becomes our new “normal”. When we give in a little on that new norm, we are now two steps away from our original starting point. A slight adjustment again moves us farther away from our “true north” and we seem to get lost. On and on it goes. Inch after inch becomes a mile over time."

Now I'm not going to say that all rated R movies are bad and that you can't watch them, but I will press you on the fact that we become desensitized to stuff the more we are around it. Things that would have bugged us a few years ago are now normal and one day the stuff that bugs us now we won't even notice anymore. Unless we see it now, and change it.

In the end for me, it isn't about rated R movies and swearing on TV, I just want to be and look more like Jesus. I want my life to be one of holiness and to take another step in this long process of sanctification. I want to become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit's promptings in my life. I'm not doing this so that God'll love me, because He already does and He can't love me any more, I'm doing this so that my love for Him will show in obedience. I dunno who we're kidding when we can say that we love Him without obeying Him, but that's another blog for another day. . .