Step into an IMAX Theater with me for a few moments. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to invite you into a thought experiment. Let’s pretend that we lived in a different kind of world for a brief spell. Imagine that we lived in an apocalyptic dystopia.

inside the nightmare

Depending upon your political convictions, you might think that already (or perhaps you thought so during the previous administration). Politics aside, in *this* imaginary apocalyptic dystopia, there is a ravenous, nefarious, inescapable apex predator. This species has been ruining the quality of life on a global scale since time out of mind. Their plight upon the planet has simply become assumed in our daily existence. Dragons are the tragic everyday destroyers of our lives.

Now, because we’re Christians, even in this apocalyptic dystopia, we still go to church. The buildings are more run down; the food supply isn’t what it used to be; we’re probably lucky to find clean water. Yet we remain church-going, covenant-keeping people even while haunted by a sky full of dragons. And every week on our way to church… somebody gets scooped up along the way by a dragon. Another hapless, helpless, hopeless victim has fallen prey.

If we were in fact oppressed by a constant assault of this horrific and multifarious apex predator, somehow we would have to respond. Even if we did nothing more than teach our children how to run and hide, at least that would be something. Our kids would then have a semi-functional set of trained survival instincts. A better entrainment would be raising up heroes of dragon-slayers. Better yet would be learning the art of dragon-taming. Therein we govern the beasts; they no longer dominate us.

keeping our eyes closed

However, it would be sheer lunacy if we just had no response whatsoever to the dragon problem. If we simply acquiesced to the pandemic of winged predators as our regrettable fate, that would be a special kind of crazy and dejected. And when it comes to the global pandemic of the plight that is pornography – this is exactly the world that we find ourselves in today.

The statistics are devastating to behold. Even for the commonality of the ubiquitous stories, the disaster becomes no less catastrophic or heartbreaking. The Church should be the beacon and bastion of safety and security in all things. Instead, churches everywhere have become subsumed into the single worst degradation of sex and sexuality in the entire history of the world. No wonder people everywhere only become increasingly more confused about the most essential issues of our identity as God-imaged creatures.

We can do better. Indeed, we must do better. The status quo is as unacceptable as it is unsustainable. In time, were we to do nothing, the dragons will have gripped everyone within their clutches.

restoring the dream

The Good News is that this apocalyptic dystopia is not our inevitable doom. The training, resources and community that Proven Ministries provides continue to deliver men, women & children into a much better life of lasting freedom. They no longer submit to the onslaught of dragons. Neither do they simply run and hide. No, our people learn how to slay and tame the evil impulse and celebrate a life of vibrant sexuality.

If this is your story, if you were scooped up by dragons on your way to church, there is still hope for you. We are very good at what we do. What might terrify you presently when you consider taking action, that shame and powerlessness very quickly becomes joy and empowerment. You only have to take a single step before you’re on the path toward the life you always wanted…

– C.T. Giles