Is it okay to go clubbing?

I thought this one was easy. “If you have to ask, then it’s probably not a good idea”. The idea that I still hold true to now is that, if you’re looking to push the line, if you’re looking to see what you can get away with; you’re already wrong. Forget about whether what you’re asking is right or wrong. You’re already wrong in the question. The Christian life is not about doing just the right amount of things to gain you favor with the Almighty. It is about doing things out of a love for the God who has abundant grace, enough to kill is own son for the sins of the whole world and reconcile those he has chosen back into his family. It’s about loving the one who loved us first.

That being said…what if that’s not where you’re coming from? What if you have the correct intentions in asking? That you genuinely want to follow God and just are not sure from your own prayers and studies of the Bible. When I asked the question to myself, I wanted to make sure I was here. That I was on the path to following God and not on the path to attempting to justify the night I had experienced until 4:30 AM in Singapore. At the time, I didn’t know for sure because of how wicked I know my heart to be. But now on the flight from Shanghai to Chicago, that night much further behind me, I can honestly say that my answer right now is: it depends.

This is coming from one who used to think, why would you ever go there in the first place? You’re setting yourself up for temptation. There’s alcohol, there’s provocative dancing. Evangelism? There’s loud music booming in your ears, how can you expect to hold a conversation? Well now I’m thinking…maybe it’s not black and white in this particular way.

When I came back from Zouk that night, I was stoked. I had a blast. I love dancing and this was the place to do it. I’m surprised I hadn’t been to a club sooner in my life. Was there alcohol? Yeah it was mad expensive too. Was there provocative dancing? Was there temptation? Yeah. You’re correct again. Not where I should be right?

But God had a lot of grace with me that night. I didn’t get plastered. I didn’t dance in ways that led me to sexual temptation. I got to make a bond with someone I intend to see more of this semester and evangelize to (though I know it will be a challenge). I was able to make a friend over in Singapore who Asaph and I did eventually get to talk to about her thoughts on God and Christianity. All of this was through dancing. I barely spoke any words while we were there.

However, this doesn’t mean it will not be sin for me the next time I go. It doesn’t mean it will not be sin the next time you go. My point was that it’s not just automatically bad.

I was just reading “Think” by John Piper and on page 27 it says, “Thinking is not the goal of life. Thinking, like non-thinking, can be the ground for boasting. Thinking, without prayer, without the Holy Spirit, without obedience, without love, will puff up and destroy (1 Cor 8:1). But thinking under the mighty hand of God, thinking soaked in prayer, thinking carried by the Holy Spirit, thinking tethered to the Bible, thinking in pursuit of more reasons to praise and proclaim the glories of God, thinking in the service of love-such thinking is indispensable in a life of fullest praise to God.” Piper is saying that thinking can be good and it can also be bad. What makes it good or bad is its intent for God. I’ve gone from clubbing to thinking, I think you could pretty much replace “thinking” in those sentences with anything we do and it would be true. Reading the bible can be done sinfully just as sex can be done for God.

The intent is what is important. So how are our intentions? I thought after reading that passage, is every single step I take taken for God? Is every breath I breathe breathed for God? It’d probably make getting out of bed in the morning a little more meaningful.

Isn’t that really radical and crazy? Yup.