This year’s commencement address may drag on and on, but we wrap up the TOP10 Things Sex has in Common with Graduation this weekend with the TOP5.
#5: The Kids Keep Getting Younger
Our church just hosted a “graduation” brunch for children moving from kindergarten to 1st grade.
Graduating before you ever enter grade school? How is that even possible?!?
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, when I was a kid you got to graduate from high school and college. That’s it. The end. And when we walked across the stage to receive our diploma we did it uphill. Both ways. In the snow. (It was the Ice Age.)
Unfortunately, the kids keep getting younger when it comes to sex too. And with the proliferation of internet porn they’re going to keep on getting younger, unless, as a culture, we begin to fully comprehend, believe and respond to the danger of sex.
#4: Anticipation
Most students can hardly wait for the day when they don their cap and gown and stride across the stage. But that anticipation pales in comparison to the hopes many hold for the first time they UN-don their clothes and jump in bed.
However, though the sexual experience should hold far greater meaning than a graduation ceremony, when we turn any one experience into THE experience we can’t help but experience a letdown, because we weren’t made primarily for experiences in the first place.
#3: Empty Words
“We’ll always stay in touch.” (Maybe, but probably not.) “Don’t change!” (Thank the Maker that I’ve changed a lot since graduation.) “I’ll never have better friends than you guys.” (Fortunately, there are still great friends to be made.)
These sentiments are usually shared with all sincerity. Regrettably, sincerity doesn’t substantiate substance.
How many empty words have been used to seduce a susceptible soul into the sack? “You make me come alive!” “I’ve never met someone like you!” “You had me at hello.” Like the expressions made at graduation, they may be honestly felt, but hollow nevertheless. In both instances…
Time tells the truth, so trust character proven over many months more than promises made in the moment.
#2: Rising Cost
THIS JUST IN!: The cost of higher education is skyrocketing. Retweet that shocker of a headline.
Though the price of sex is dropping, the cost of sex is soaring as well. The obvious costs include STDs and out-of-wedlock child births. But is it that difficult to connect the hyper-sexualization of our culture with the rampant growth of cohabitation, porn, divorce, sexual abuse and sex trafficking?
#1: It should come with an important piece of paper.
Most want the diploma as much if not more than the ceremony. It’s the proof you can point to for years to come and say, “I did it! I committed to the degree, I put in the time, I got the grades and I graduated.”
Could you imagine just calling up Harvard and requesting a diploma without ever attending there? Ridiculous, right? And if they complied: Fraudulent!
Why is it that when it comes to sex, it’s OK to ask for it without any commitment. We don’t even have to have any relationship. If we wouldn’t expect to graduate without committing the time and effort necessary to earn the privilege, how can we treat something as precious as sex so casually?
Sexual intercourse is the “graduation” celebration meant for two souls committed to each other for life. That commitment is what the marriage license stands for. It’s more than a piece of paper. Much more than a diploma. It’s a covenant.
It’s just that unlike a diploma, you get the paper up front with the promise that you’ll earn it by the time you die.
Don’t be fraudulent.
Make the commitment first.
Then enjoy the celebration.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality… and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. – 1 Thes 4:3,6 (NASB)
Do you think I missed a couple other commonalities between sex and graduation? You’re probably right. Feel free to share them in the comment section below, but here are a few I’ve already covered in past installments of the TOP10 Things Sex has in Common with… series:
DNA: It’s What’s For Dating
Dug this weekend’s DNA? Be a good friend and share with your friends on the social media platform of choice: Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter.
Want to go beyond what a blog post can accomplish? The LoveEd discipleship series, Beyond Sex & Salvation, will empower you to prepare for relational success when it counts: BEFORE YOU FALL IN LOVE!
It’s NOT for couples, but for any wise individual who thinks they might want to get married sometime before they die. And would like to learn how to better build healthy relationships in the meantime.
Check out all three study guides in our store. You can walk through it on your own, but it’s more fun with friends, so consider putting together an FMU LoveEd small group study. Even better? And ask a married couple you respect to lead it!
