old flames & temptation, Facebook to blame

Well it seems that Facebook leads to sex, being unfaithful, sinful and dirty. Well at least a NJ pastor says.

"I've been in extended counseling with couples with marital problems because of Facebook for the last year and a half," he said. "What happens is someone from yesterday surfaces, it leads to conversations and there have been physical meet-ups. The temptation is just too great."

Neptune pastor tells married church leaders to stop using Facebook
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/neptune_pastor_tells_marrried.html

Lots of us have Facebook accounts to be close to our friends (new and old). At times, we find someone who was part of our lives (old flames) whom we still hold some level of friendship. Restarting this or that friend shouldn't matter because by the time we meet them again most of them are married, committed and/or have children. Nonetheless you should know better to simply keep your pants on.

On a personal note, in my Facebook account, I've got my friends from high school (some whom I've been friends with since elementary school), college (two different ones), work (past & present), church (that crazy bunch), related friends (friends of friends who've become good friends of mine, including an ex), some family (mom, oldest sister, nephews & son) and even a fellow conservative (politics) both in the States and abroad (as far as Taiwan to the east and Chile to the south). Most of my friends do the same especially to be close with our old friends who live all over the world nowadays.

Screwtape & Wormwood

I've been reading the 1942 book by C.S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters). It's an interesting book with dark humor. In this story, the narrator is a demon (Screwtape) writing a series of letters to his nephew (Wormwood) who seems to be a young and less experienced (rookie) demon whom he's instructing/advising how to tempt a man.

"Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to 'do it on their own'. And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt."

One conclusion that I've made so far from this book is God's relationship to us (not the way around). God gives us complete free will to decide to follow him or not, but if we opt to follow him, He won't abandon us.

At the same time, we're vulnerable to sin due to the same free will that God had given us.

Some of these conclusions might be obvious, but reading them in a dark comedy is really cool. Sometimes the best sermon and second-hand teachings (Jesus being the source of these real teachings) don't come from an altar.

After all, we're all ministers of faith.