Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
Friends fly free. It’s one of my favorite airline perks.
My first experience with business travel was in 1976. I was in advertising sales for a small magazine. How small was it? Well, this magazine was so small that I was the entire sales force. I had customers in Seattle, Miami, San Diego, Rhode Island, and everywhere in between. Unfortunately, this was right before the airlines started with their partner programs and mileage deals. Otherwise, I’d still be taking our whole neighborhood along for free.
One of the things I noticed about being a married man on the road was how much I thought about sex out there. I’m not sure why. Maybe there was something about the oxygen in the airports, but the moment I stepped onto the marble floor in O’Hare International Airport, my pulse picked up ten or twelve beats. When I stopped to buy a newspaper, my eyes were drawn away from the Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal to the rack of magazines above me. Because this was before shrink-wrapping, I sometimes picked up one of these four-color slicks and quickly thumbed through it—good articles, I had heard. The fifty-five to sixty pulse beats became 145 or 150. I was fully aerobic.
Out on the road it was no easier. In downtown Atlanta, for instance, just a few blocks from the Hyatt, there’s a whole street of porn shops and peep shows. Late one night, I slipped out of my room and walked that street. I didn’t go inside, but I didn’t need to. I was fully aerobic once more.
That was a long time ago. And even though I know I sound like my grandmother, all this stuff has now been delivered to our wireless handheld devices, smartphones, and laptops. There’s no need to visit the airport or that street in Atlanta to get our pulse nice and high. And the prime-time airwaves are not much cleaner. Promiscuity, infidelity, aberrant behavior, fornication, and adultery are no longer whispered in hushed tones; they’re fully celebrated.
My guess is that you’re right with me. You know about being aerobic. You know about this sexual stuff. You hate it, and you love it. It repulses you, and you’re mys- teriously drawn to it.
Can we talk? This is just between you and me, OK? There are two reasons you and I must stay away from this poison. Two solid truths must take root deeply in our minds before our pounding hearts take over for our brain cells.
First, the apostle Paul, a man who took a number of lengthy business trips, summed it up this way: “You are not your own, for you were bought at a price” (vv. 19–20). I know this is going to sound a little strange, but your wife picked up the tab for you. When she married you, she invested everything she had—body, mind, and spirit—to buy you. She is real and you belong to her.
Jesus Christ also paid for you. If you had been the only man alive, He would have asked for the check. Your mind and body are the temple of the Holy Spirit—the place where the Spirit of God lives. And because you and I are the personal property of our wives and our Savior, we have no rights on the open market again. Even our thoughts are to be taken “captive” and made obedient to Christ (2 Co 10:5).
The second reason to stay pure is fairly obvious, but it deserves a mention. It’s true every time. There are no exceptions to this rule: immorality creates chaos. Even if it’s not 355 acted out, it keeps our hearts awake. It keeps us restless, off balance. It denies us focus. And if it is acted out, it rips our lives apart. It destroys our relationships. It deceptively changes our priorities; it allows us to give ourselves permission to follow the worst parts of ourselves. It crushes those whom we love and would have given our lives for. Take a moment to turn to Proverbs 7 to find out, in vivid detail, what happens when a young man—or any man, for that matter—is led astray. Impurity is pure hell—every single time.
One of the things I’ve learned about business trips is that, if I’m not traveling alone, all this temptation is much less overwhelming—much easier to flee. Later in my career, when I owned the company and could make these decisions for myself, I would bring a colleague along on my business trips. Something about being with a business companion drove away my dangerous sense of autonomy. Today, even though my travel budget is my own, I still travel alone. Well, sort of.
So now that I think about it, I do have a Savior who always goes along. Plus, I have plenty of mileage, and friends fly free. So Jesus flies with me. Every time.