Getting knocked out of the race

This morning, I received a surprise email from a young man whom I had helped lead during my first short-term mission trip to Alaska. He was 15 or 16 at the time, so now I guess he must be 22-23. He's married, working, and going to school. He made some good decisions, like taking part in a one-year Teen Mania internship and attending a Christian school. But an old habit has come back to haunt him and his marriage--one that I had counseled him about way back then, and he is now asking me for "insight" about how to deal with his addiction to pornography.

Repeatedly, I seem to be confronted with this issue as people come to me for advice. With the Internet, I think this junk has found its way into so many more psyches. Sometimes, I recommend a book like Joshua Harris' Not Even a Hint or even Eldredge's Wild at Heart. The bottom line seems to be--guys start to get bored, then they get into trouble. They look to a fantasy woman for safety and good feelings, then they feel disgusted with themselves afterwards and utter things like, "I can't help it..."

I think we're creatures who crave satisfaction and will do anything to obtain it, by nature. God designed us this way and gave us these desires, so that we would be satisfied and delighted by Him and through Him. If we don't find satisfaction in Him, we'll find it somewhere else. We demand it--that is, our flesh. Another writer (maybe Chesterton) said that "Every man who goes into a whorehouse is really looking for God." It may not seem that way on the surface, but that's how serious seeking porn is--straight up idolatry.

So I'm tempted to get in this guy's face (even though he's in another state) and tell him he's an unbeliever--that his eternity is at stake, along with his marriage. For now, I'm strongly encouraging him to seek Biblical counseling through his church, read those books I mentioned earlier, and I also told him about a program called Covenant Eyes that tracks every website a person looks at and provides a report to someone else. Please pray with me for this young man and so many others like him who are addicted to this junk and being drawn into their doom and distraction from the main thing--glorifying Christ in their bodies.