Thrill of the Chaste

So as with most of my writing, I document themes in my life. I believe God puts a lot of things together in my life---all point towards the same genre, idea, or theme for two reasons. One, I get a very interdisciplinary, diverse education on any given topic--quite liberal arts of the Lord! Two, to get a point home--after hearing similar messages for weeks, I start to pay attention and learn something.

So for my inevitable Valentine's Day post, I've had a few diverse instances come together. One, Valentine's Day is today. Last night Georgetown sponsored a talk by Dawn Eden, a catholic author who wrote the Thrill of the Chaste, a book I actually read in one sitting during a rainy day visiting a friend in Philadelphia. In some ways it's your quintessential Christian sex and dating book, with some conservative by some people's view's stances. But she appeared to be an edgy individual--so I read it. And when I heard she was coming to campus I went.

The talk was good--she talked about her own life, living from relationship to relationship with different men to finding God later in life and then even later "becoming chaste." She talked about chastity being different from abstinence--because being chaste is about more than just our outward, moral sexual behavior but about our whole being, our thought life and our attitude towards others (Jesus said one who looks at a woman with lust has already committed it in his heart! yikes!).

I went with several of my students and we stayed afterwards for the round-table discussion. Being a catholic, much of what we talked about in the group was contraception and the catholic church's stance on birth control, condoms, etc. A few people joined the group who were more sexually experienced than my students--and they carried the conversation--it is always good to be exposed to the diverse people on this campus! This even had me watching the women dropping kids off at the elementary school I volunteer with--I didn't see any mothers today with rings on their hands. Pregnancy outside of wedlock is commonplace in my neighborhood.

In response to last night's talk, I met with my bible study co-leader, a sophomore this morning. Each Thursday morning we meet for about an hour and do some form of "creative prayer." Two weeks ago we prayer-walked (prayed for people and buildings, ideas we saw), last week we prayed specifically for the girls in our group. This morning we decided to pray for women on campus. Leading a women's bible study, we are often engaging some of the difficult issues of being a woman on campus (ambition, relationships, friendships, body image, among many!).

Rather than just focusing on people we knew, we decided to think of all kinds of women on campus. I brought crayons, a magazine and some glue. We created collages while praying and celebrating many of the services and organizations on campus that serve women's needs on campus. We prayed for the pro-life and pro-choice groups. We prayed for girls in abusive relationships, dealing with eating disorders, and cliques on their halls. I created a word picture surrounding the verse "charm is deceptive, beauty is fleeting...but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised (Proverbs 31)."

In our small group this semester we're studying the book of Ruth. Last week's bible study we got to compare Ruth and Naomi a lot. In the story, Naomi is an older woman who has recently become a widow. Ruth, her daughter-in-law has also been widowed. Ruth, rather than going home to her own family, decided to go with Naomi back to Naomi's hometown, tying their fates together. We talked about how Naomi renames herself "Mara"--meaning "bitter." But God had such a plan for Naomi! He places a person like Ruth in her life to encourage, strength, and provide for her! We then thought a lot about when we were acting as Naomi, bitter towards God, thinking he afflicted us....and when we could seek to act like Ruth for others in our lives. How women can encourage and love one another!

So all of these things came together, thinking about women on campus, difficult issues in relating to other women and men--along with the "thrill"--and sometimes pressure of Valentine's day!

Pray for the women of Georgetown and Washington, DC!