“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.” —Cersei
CHRISTMAS
I’ve been wanting to write a Christmas blog since I started this website and I never did. Each Christmas I would get distracted by the beauty and joy of what this season brings to my life. I love the Christmas lights, the Christmas songs, the Christmas cheer, the mystical feeling in the air of something that changed humanity's future forever. Knowing 2000 years ago, a god became a human. A god became a human baby. Somewhere in the space and time of this universe, this event happened, and it’s in the air, it’s in the cold, it’s in the Christmas tree, it’s in the music, and it’s in the gift-giving and receiving. I’d rather live it than write about it. This is an old ancient human tragedy that is now a story of eternal hope.
But this year was different, I have felt less of that.
More darkness in the air and in my life.
More sadness, loneliness, sin, frustration, apathy, and laziness.
Less hope, less faith, less trust, less love, less of everything.
Less goodness and more evil.
I’ve joined the rest of the couch potatoes that have been binge-watching Netflix, Hulu, the news, tik tok, porn, amazon greed, eating more than usual, and just browsing as much true and false news going around the internet.
About 3 weeks ago I decided to use my binge-watching time more appropriately and pick a show that was actually solid, and I picked Game of Thrones.
And I love it!
There is a discussion to be had if a Christian should watch it for all the boobs that are being shown, who cares about boobs anyways, but it’s a great show and it had me thinking….
What is the game of thrones going on in my heart?
The Christian life is about daily bending the knee to Christ the King.
The Christian life is about daily bending the knee to this god that became a little baby boy.
The Christian life is about daily remembrance I am a part of a story of my creator who is a god becoming a human who becomes a good king over humanity.
This is what Christmas is about, an invasion of the human heart by a god/man.
He took the throne.
GAME OF THRONES
But this past year, and truthfully other years, I’ve still been playing a game of thrones with Jesus.
As much as I know he has already conquered the world and humanity, I have this idea he hasn’t conquered my heart. I still want to be King. I don’t trust him. I don’t trust he is good. I’m mad his kingship doesn’t make sense.
And Honestly, I’m tired of how his Kingship has been. It hasn’t been easy.
Somedays I try to dethrone Jesus, but then I realize, I long for the goodness he brings. I want him back on the throne in my heart. I want his goodness. I want the beauty and joy he offers. I want to be a part of his story.
BOOBS
In Game of Thrones, you see boobs everywhere. Boobs here, boobs there, boobs to go around.
Humanity is flesh and blood. We are broken flesh and blood. Evil flesh and blood.
We are human.
We are real.
We have boobs and penises.
and the crazy thing about humanity is that its creator became a human, it got a penis.
God the Son, became a human.
From the Eternal Land of the Trinity, came God the SON.
As I started publically writing about sexuality and Christianity, I realized Christians still live in the land of Gnosticism.
We still act like the body is bad.
We don’t talk about the body.
We don’t talk about sexuality.
We don’t talk about body image.
We don’t talk about boobs and penises and missionary sex or oral sex or doggy style.
I’ve learned more from my non-christian environments than my Christian environments about sexuality.
I understand Christian culture wants to keep sex sacred since the world hasn’t, but we have gone so far that we act as if any sexual sin is the worse sin that you can act. Or that we are not horny and justify our lustful behavior or just horny behavior in general.
Christians are horny, in marriage and outside of marriage. It happens. It’s real.
There is more shame for having sexual immorality than ignoring the poor on the street or greed.
We barely talk about the goodness of sex or how our sex lives are going.
Many Christian couples have problems with their sex life and are embarrassed to talk about that with their close friends or family.
Many Christians have boring sex lives and need to have a little bit more creativity with it.
Christians have tied so much shame to the body and sex.
This is why I like Game of Thrones showing boobs. They embrace the human body. They show it. It reminds me that sex is part of the human experience. It can be used for evil and good.
Marriage was also used throughout human history, not for romance the way evangelicals have idolized it, but a way to keep peace with other humans.
And God the SON stepped into this world. He became a male, a boy, and had a penis.
Jesus had a PENIS.
When he was crucified, his PENIS wasn’t hidden the way our conservative images of Jesus on the cross show.
The Romans stripped anyone on the cross of their clothes to bring them shame and take away their dignity.
Little did they know, this act of shame and humiliation towards Jesus, the god who became man, was giving back glory to humanity. Was giving humanity the perfect spotless sacrifice it needed to give to God for it’s thousands of years of evil.
God became Man, got a human body, got a penis, and it was good.
So what does that mean about homosexuality?
Homosexuality
Man, where do I start?
Besides the annoying debates within my conservative Chrisitan family on if they should call themselves gay or not, or if they should be in celibate partnerships, or how ex-gay beliefs are like the worse thing that has ever existed,
All this shit just shows that we are broken in need of a Savior to help us out with our same-sex lust.
I remember the day my buddy Christian pointed out to me that I believed in heresy.
It was at a bible study, I was 23, and as we were talking about the body, I stated I just wanted to get out of my body since my body was evil and I wanted to live in Heaven where it was good and leave my body so it can be destroyed because I was tired of struggling with homosexuality.
I will be the perfect spirit.
My friend Christian laughed and said, “Richard, you know that’s considered heresy right?”
I laughed and said, “Really?”
Christian is really smart and I know he knew more than me in regards to Christian truths and traditions.
He explained to me the proper understanding that God is sanctifying my body and I will one day be like Jesus with a transformed body and I will still be flesh and blood. Not some Spirit.
I started to rethink everything.
God becoming man meant the human body was becoming good again.
The human body is good.
And goodness is tied to Beauty.
And Beauty is tied to the human body.
And we can be attracted to the beauty of the human body, male and female, despite what culture says is ideal.
The human body, good and beautiful, male and female, is tied to the story of Jesus leading us into more beauty and goodness and away from lust and evil.
He is taking us into the New Kingdom.
I started to understand males and their beauty and goodness are attractive.
They can be lusted upon since I am still not fully sanctified or glorified like Christ.
I still have some old human ways of being evil, as God the Spirit is making me more like God the Son.
My good looking friends, with their blue eyes, and blonde hair, with their fit body, their penis, their emotions, their spiritual life, can all be lusted upon or be valued as an attractive creation of God.
I can lust or find them attractive.
It’s my pick.
and this is what Christmas is about.
A story of war between lust and beauty. A war between good and evil.
But this story is coming to an end.
The beginning already happened, the fall already happened, the build-up already happened, the Climax already happened,
the rest of the story is just the ending of Jesus being King, and us playing a game of thrones with him.
Winter has come.
Christmas is here.
This ancient but present story of a god becoming man, reminding us boobs and penises are good and we can enjoy the beauty of our same-sex friends and fight against same-sex lust, and bend our knee to Jesus the King, fills this December sky as Christmas lights, people caroling, families watching Home Alone 1 and 2, eating cookies and drinking hot cocoa, giving and receiving gifts, getting a Christmas tree.
Christmas is about a Game of Thrones in our hearts.
Actually, it’s about whether or not we will acknowledge the god becoming a human.
Jesus the baby, who became a King.
Now that I think about it, we can’t play a game of thrones, we have no throne. We either kneel to the good King or don’t.
There is no middle ground.