Recently my Dad gave me a great book to read entitled Not Even A Hint by Josh Harris. It deals with the issues of lust and holiness. The whole premise of this book is that compromising with lust is impossible. There is to be not even a hint of lust in our lives! Some interesting points from the book:

• Lust’s only purpose is to make you lust more.
• The power of lust comes from its false promise that it can make us happier than choosing what God wants us to choose.
• Holiness is a choice that we have to make by actively working towards it through the spiritual disciplines.

This last point should certainly be obvious to me, but for some reason it hasn’t been. I have to choose to be holy and to actively strive towards it. It’s like rowing the boat across our pond. There’s a current that pushes you towards the north-eastern edge if you stop rowing even for a moment. In the same way ceasing from the Disciplines immediately will sweep me back into the arms of lust and all of its negative manifestations, as I experience too frequently. It’s time to watch the eyes and the heart and to realize, as Josh Harris puts it, “The greatest privilege of my life ... is relating to, communicating with, and knowing the Creator of the Universe.” May we all realize this and choose holiness.

Read the full review of Not Even A Hint in the Reading List.