Sex God

(Still in Works)

I almost didn’t go. I wasn’t really “feeling” it - my monthly dose of acne is worse than usual (as are the rest of my monthly symptoms), and with my graduate classes back in full swing, I considered that perhaps I ought to simply stay home and study.

But for whatever reason I decided to go. It’s as if there was some sort of gravitational pull (perhaps God) luring me in and I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist it even if I tried (kind of like how I’m now in NYC). And so I made my way down Broadway, through Time Square, and arrived at our meeting point – a Starbucks on 49th Street – just before 9.

Perhaps the hesitation came because I had gone last week, and it wasn’t what I had expected. The crowd was a bit younger than I had hoped for and there were a lot less men than I had anticipated; in fact, there were none. But the topic was decent – at the moment the group is discussing the book Sex God by Rob Bell – and the girls in the group seemed decent well.

And so I was there - for the second Tuesday in a row. I had the book with me, but I hadn’t done the reading – at least not recently. I read the book 3 years ago, so the material was far from fresh in my mind, yet I managed to “cheat” my way into this evening’s discussion by commenting on what other people said. I think I fooled them rather well, especially since there was underlining in my book.

There were two passages in particular that stood out to me as I was thumbing through the book.

On page 98 Rob writes, “Love is handing your heart to someone and taking the risk that they will hand it back because they don’t want it. That’s why it’s such a crushing ache on the inside. We gave away a part of ourselves and it wasn’t wanted.”

At the end of the same chapter Rob goes on to say, “In matters of love, it’s as if God has agreed to play by the same rules we do. God can do anything – that’s what makes God, God. But God can’t do everything. God can’t make us love him – that’s our choice. Love is risky for God too. Which is a bit like a boy asking a girl to dance. ” (109)

But we didn’t just talk about the book. We also talked about…