Flip-Flop

It seems like there's a flip side to almost every idea. Take the Christian walk, for example. As a believer, you can choose to focus all of your efforts and energy on perfecting yourself, or you can focus on becoming more Christ-like. "So what's the difference?" you say. "Same thing, right?"

Nope.

The one side directs all of your attention on yourself, the other side directs it all on Christ.

I recently read a book called "Created to Be His Helpmeet", by Debi Pearl. The author lays down a strict set of rules for every wife to follow, with the ultimate goal of producing a good marriage. But shouldn't the ultimate goal of every wife be to glorify God? If all you want is to have a good marriage, then of course you will need to focus on yourself, on perfecting yourself. But if your desire is to glorify God, then you must focus all of your attention on God.

And there's a big difference between the two.

Lauren Winner is an author who challenges the way readers analyze ideas. In her book "Real Sex", she describes a speech on singleness and chastity she attended. Lauren writes, "(the speaker) seems to be working toward becoming, principally, the kind of woman Prince Charming wants, which incidentally may be the kind of woman God wants. Her priorities, I would suggest, need to flip-flop. We are to become persons of God, and this may bear the incidental fruit of attracting a great partner. For the point of chastity is not that you turn yor attention away from other people to make you more attractive to them but that you turn your attention away from sexual and romantic entanglements with other people and orient yourself toward God."