Casandra Martin

***Today we are taking a minute away from our thoughts about time to focus on the necessity of a pure heart. Temptations continue to pound our souls, like the surf unrelentingly hitting the sand. This blog, which first appeared in July, 2014, speaks my prayer that we will choose to stand up and be counted as people of holiness.*** 

Our world loves to dabble in grays. White and black are either considered old-fashioned or self-righteous. In our society, truth is whatever makes you feel good. Evil is anything that doesn’t meet the current standard of political correctness. Our culture swims in shades of gray. Gray represents compromise, inclusion, and comfort. The extremes of good and evil are too narrow for a modern mind.

As Christians, we struggle with gray, even as God calls us to a life of truth, holiness, and purity. Gray allows me some wiggle room. It invites me to hold on to personal preferences and pleasures. It tells me that one small concession isn’t going to hurt anyone. Gray tells me that I deserve it. It questions why anyone else should have a say in what I read, or watch, or do. It entices me to take control and choose my own path.

Gray, in all of its shades, is a lie.

Gray wraps pornography up in a book cover, selling it as a guilty pleasure. Gray parades immorality in front of us, telling us love has many facets and shades. Gray packages manipulation, selfishness, and degradation in a movie trailer, expecting that we will hand over ten dollars apiece to watch lust come alive on a screen. Gray is arrogant. Gray is a bully. It is time to tell gray “no.”

My Jesus Resolution today is to live in one shade of purity. I don’t need many shades of gray. I need Jesus. He is the only one who can rescue me from the shame, guilt, and regret that gray brings to my soul. Today I am going to commit to telling gray “no.” No matter how much marketing, how much hype, how much pressure, or how much enticement gray throws out, it is time to stand up to gray and reveal His light. The shadow of the cross is the only shade my soul needs.