It's about connectedness.

It's quite rare for me to be spending the weekend in Melbourne, as since transferring to Torquay Salvo's, I've spent most of my weekends in Geelong staying with my parents so I can go to church. So last night I prayed that God would use this day as a blessing. And when you pray such things, it's often surprising how God answers!



Today started when I was awoken (granted late in the morning - hey it's my day off!) by my beautiful friends Ann & Venita who thought they'd come over and bless our household with breakfast. Unfortunately (well actually quite fortunately for me!) I was the only one home, so I was treated to a delicious (and healthy) breakfast of salmon, eggs, toast and salad. The beautiful thing about living in Christian community is that this sort of blessing happens quite often - but they are always appreciated.



Venita had nothing planned for the day either, so we decided to have a relaxing afternoon of movies and chats. We went to Balwyn and saw the movie "As It Is In Heaven". If you do nothing else this year, go and see that movie! It's all sub-titled, which normally makes it quite difficult to get swept up in a movie, but this time around, you forget they are speaking in another language. The film is basically about a famous composer and conductor (Daniel) who after a heart attack which renders him unable to work, moves back to the town he was born in. Whilst there he decides he'd like to take over the church choir, and thus a beautiful journey of community and love between people is embarked upon. You begin to feel part of this group of "nobody's" and on more than one occasion we were struck by how God was speaking to us throughout the film. I guess the biggest thing God spoke to me about was the value of community and the need for that community to speak out against the different struggles that go on within members lives. There was an ongoing theme throughout the film that many atrocities were happening in the lives of the people within this community, and nobody had bothered to speak out against them. Leaving victims to be left feeling hurt and alone. Throughout the course of the film, as people begin to find their voice/tone/heart song, they do start speaking out against these issues (such as domestic violence, bullying, prejudice against mental disabilites and the labelling of women who find themselves in broken relationships) and the community is strengthened as a result.



One of the central characters was Svig, a local pastor and his wife Inga. Svig was a good man (at heart) but had let the "fame" of being the local pastor (ie. Saviour complex!) of the community go to his head, and spent far too much time focussing on the sins and need for forgiveness than in the relationship he should have had with his church folk. There is one particular scene which was quite confronting. Essentially this pastor had forgotten that one of his duties was to be a good husband to his wife. He had forgotten that the connection with his wife needed to be emotional, physical, spiritual and sexual. And his wife called him on it. It was extremely confronting, but so very true.



It reminded me of something Rob Bell speaks of in his book "Sex.God". The theme of Sex God is to strengthen the link between your sexuality and your spirituality. To us in this world, that seems so very wrong doesn't it? But what Bell says is that sex is in essence about connectedness. It's about being connected to someone at a raw and deep and passionate and INTIMATE level, and that God created sex for pleasure. Sex was not just given to us for procreation, but for pleasure as well - it's how we differ from animals (though for some guys I know, I can't necessarily say there is much difference! haha!). Venita & I were talking about this afterwards and she asked me what every single person probably asks daily "But how does that work for us as single women Sarah?!" Which leads me to the most powerful and freeing thing I've ever read... if we can believe that Sex is about raw, deep, passionate and intimate connection - it's possible to be sexual without the act of sex! Rob Bell writes (and I'll quote it when I get the book back from the person I let borrow it!) that one of the most sexual people he knows is a friend of his who spends his time working for a not-for-profit organization... and is celibate. No sex, yet he is the most sexual person Rob knows.



When I read that I thought "I get that!", and shared that with my friend and mentor Shane. Shane then proceeded to say to me "Sarah, I agree with him. You are the most sexual person I know, yet you are celibate. When I'm with you, I'm drawn in. You make people want to be around you and want to know even more of you, and you make people want to let you in and know them - raw." He also said that one of the gifts I have is physical touch. That when I touch people, they feel safe, and that it's an incredibly sexual thing - but not in the way the world sees sexual. In a deeper Godly way. I connect with people.


I explained to Venita that is what I think us single Christian girls can do. Have those deep connections with people, teach them the value of healthy meaningful touch, and being intimate with each other. We both agreed that was a precious gift we have been given, and that we should strive to deepen it even further. So I will continue to pray....to pray that God shows us as single women in an overly sexualized world, how to bring people back to embrace their true God-given sexuality. To ask that God will give us people in which we can have meaningful and deep connection with. And that God will help us to remain pure in our intentions and our actions.



After all...isn't THAT what Jesus would do?


I'm so thankful to God that He has given me a community of friends who on a daily basis help me to grow and strengthen my relationship with God. Who encourage me to be the woman of Christ I was created to be. And who I can be honest with, about everything going on in my life, not just the bits they might deem acceptable. This movie today, showed me it really is all about connectedness. It's about loving people, and letting them in. In a society that has tried to make sex just something you can "do" rather than a part of who we are, it is our job as Christians to reclaim it, to own it and to model the value of connection both emotionally, physically, spiritually and sexually. I'm striving for a further deepening of the connection I have in all my relationships, and look forward to the way God will reveal Himself to us through that!