Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality

As I’m getting ready for our next series Pure Sex on the Song of Solomon, one of the books I read was Rob Bell’s Sex God. This book has been on my shelf for awhile so it was good to read it. I thought it was a lot better than his first book Velvet Elvis, as that felt like a collection of sermons I had heard before. This was original and very thought provoking.

One of the things that I appreciated about the book was the holistic take that Bell took on the topic of our sexuality. Many books are very focused on what they are trying to accomplish. Bell’s point is that our sexuality is not a separate thing. The way we compartmentalize our lives will not work in this area. As he said, “When it comes to our sexuality and spirituality, this is about that and that is about this.”

Here are some other things that jumped out:

• Whether it’s what we do with our energies or how we feel about our bodies or wanting to have the control in relationships or trying to recover from heartbreak or dealing with our ferocious appetites or the difficulty of communicating clearly with those we love or longing for something or someone better, much of life is in some way connected with our sexuality.
• The writer of Genesis makes it clear that in all of creation there is something different about humans. They aren’t God, and they aren’t going to become God, but in some distinct, intentional way, something of God has been placed in them. We reflect what God is like and who God is. A divine spark resides in every single human being.
• How you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the creator.
• Sexy is when it feels good to be in your own skin. Your own body feels right, it feels comfortable. Sexy is when you love being you.
• When you give something away, you no longer have it. When a couple shares with others what belongs to the two of them, they pay a price. The power and the mystery and, therefore, the strength of the bond come from the exclusivity.
• The power of a couple coming together is rooted in their choice to give themselves to each other and to no one else in this particular way.

There are more things I could share, I highlighted whole pages as I’m preparing for our next series, but also things that grabbed me as I think about my marriage. Definitely worth picking up, a really good, fast read that will make you think.