Sex God

So, there's a certain book that I've been wanting to read for awhile. I think Rob Bell has a really engaging way of speaking, and it really comes out in his writing. So today I went out and purchase "Sex God". It basically just pinpoints all the ways sexuality and spirituality are connected. At one point in the book, Rob Bell is talking about Jacob. How he pretended to be his brother, Esau, in order to get his inheritance. How he then had to flee for his life before Esau killed him. When Jacob reaches a "certain location", as the Bible says, God speaks to him. Back then, everyone believed that God only spoke in temples or other holy places... not in "certain locations".. God will speak to you anywhere, anytime. Jacob places a stone altar there, to commemorate that connection he first made with God.

"Imagine you're one of Jacob's kids; you have just arrived in this new land, and there's a stone pillar there that your dad can't stop talking about. He's telling anyone who will listen this story about something that happened to him years ago, and he's stacking rocks on top of rocks. 
What if you asked, "Dad, what's the big deal? They're just rocks"
I imagine Jacob would respond, "Yes, you're right. They're rocks. But they're more than rocks. You have to understand. I was on the run and thought my brother was going to kill me. My life was over. And God saved me. And God brought me to a new home. And I had food to eat and a place to sleep and eventually God gave me a family. These aren't just rocks. They are a symbol of life for me. God came through for me."

I've never been sure how to explain my devotion to God to the people in my life that simple do not understand, until I read that section of the book. And after sharing that sentiment, through the supposed eyes of Jacob, I don't feel like any words are necessary. 
It goes on.. 

"We do this all the time. If I were to go through your garage or storage shelves or sock drawer. I guarantee we would find the strangest thing. I have a trophy from when I was fourteen. The little man fell of some time in the 90's, the lettering that says what it was for has faded, and the years have revealed that, shockingly, that isn't real marble. 

But I've kept it.
I haven't thrown it away because it's more than a trophy to me. That trophy is the first I actually won something on my own. It represents a certain period of my life and the struggles of being fourteen and finding my identity and wondering if I'd ever be good at something.
It's a trophy, but it's more than a trophy. 
Jewelry, pictures, sculptures made by children, antiques that have been in the family for years, art projects, souvenirs, velvet paintings - we hold on to them because they point beyond themselves. If we were to ask you about a certain picture and why you have it displayed in such a prominent place in your home, or why you carry it around in your pocket or wallet everywhere you go, you'd probably respond by talking about the people in the picture, where it was taken, when it was taken. But that would only be the start. Those relationships and that places and that time represent something more. Something much bigger.  If we kept exploring, you'd probably end up using words like trust and love and belonging and commitment and celebration. 
So it's a picture, but it's more than a picture.
The physical thing - this picture, trophy, artifact, gift - is actually about that relationship, that truth, that reality, that moment in time. 
This is actually about that. 

Whether it's what we do with our energies

or how we feel about our bodies

or wanting to have the control in relationships

or trying to recover from heartbreak

or dealing with ferocious appetites

or the difficulty of communicating clearly with those we love

or longing for something or someone better,

much of life is someway connected with sexuality. 

And when we begin to sort through all the issues surrounding our sexuality, we quickly end up in the spiritual. 

because this

is always about that.

...

Something deeper. Something behind it all. You can't talk about sexuality without talking about how we were made. And that will inevitably lead you to who made us. At some point you have to talk about God.

Sex. God. They're connected. And they can't be separated. Where one is, you will always find the other. This is a book about how sexuality is the "this" and spirituality is the "that". To make sense of the one, we have to explore the other.

And that; is what this book is about. "


Like how Jacob somehow led to sex.
Weird. 
This and that.
Oy vay.