Chaperons don’t enforce morality; they force immorality to be discreet. ~Judith Martin
My Facebook feed has been buzzing with response to a timely piece, “But It’s the Prom” by Steve Higginbotham.
So I figured, I might-as-well weigh in with another perspective.
Twenty years ago… oh that makes me feel not so youthful… I was a brand new Christian straight out the world. My first two years of high school were spent immersed in wickedness. My life was full of drunkenness, violence, vulgarity and sexual immortality. I associated with drug dealers and criminals.
Even though I knew better I was trapped. I sunk deeper and deeper into the pit of guilt and shame. I was hurting, broken, hopeless and helpless.
Then I found the Healer.
He picked me up off the ground. He covered me. He spoke life, “Now go and sin no more” (John 8:1-11).
I was rescued. I was redeemed. I was changed. I was also quickly convicted of how much I owed my new Master. My life was now indebted to a cause and to a Man much greater than myself.
He changed my life with these words:
As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
But Jesus replied:“Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
He said to another person:
“Come, follow me.”
The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
But Jesus told him:“Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”
Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”
But Jesus told him:“Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
I was now a teenage girl on mission. I unashamedly spoke the same truth that had just saved me. Instead of getting into fights in the hallway I got into bible studies. Instead of cursing, my lips spoke praise. I stumbled but I believed Jesus’ promises to be worth getting back up for.
I was honored to join the ranks of teens who desired to serve God in biblical proportions.
- Joseph- 17 years old who fled sexual sin
- Daniel- 15 years old who rejected the delicacies of the King
- Mary- 14 years old who carried the Savior in her womb
So what’s that have to do with going to the prom?
Well, I’m just about there.
I wasn’t interested in dancing. I was interested in following Jesus. I wasn’t interested in high school drama. I was interested in preaching the Kingdom of God. I wasn’t interested in loud, worldly music. I was interested in setting my hand to the plow and not looking back.
I didn’t spend my final days of high school planning my outfit for prom. I did spend my last days of high school planning for my first missionary trip to the Philippines.
Even more, with my new-found faith I had no desire to go and watch my friends and classmates drive the nails deeper into the hands of my Lord. I knew what most people would be doing there. There would be girls offering their bodies to boys. There would be girls experimenting with girls and boys with boys. There would be lust. There would be drunkenness. There would be drugs. Their would be filthy talk.
I had no desire to hear filth pour from the hearts. I had no desire to watch their lewd and lustful behavior. I had no desire to keep on participating in the sin that I had so recently been set free from. There are times that I had to be in the world, Prom night was not one of them.
I had enough of sin.
You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. 1 Pet. 4:3
There is no go-to Bible verse that declares an eternal truth, “Thou shalt not go to the prom.” It’s not carved on a stone tablet some where. Prom doesn’t make the glossary of the New Testament.
But all the stuff that goes with it does sure does.
Surely you know that people who do wrong will not get to enjoy God’s kingdom. Don’t be fooled. These are the people who will not get to enjoy his kingdom: those who sin sexually, those who worship idols, those who commit adultery, men who let other men use them for sex or who have sex with other men, those who steal, those who are greedy, those who drink too much, those who abuse others with insults, and those who cheat. In the past some of you were like that. But you were washed clean, you were made holy, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor. 6:9-11
Let’s remember this prom season, whether you are a teenage or the parent of one, our kids in Christ have been washed clean and made holy by the blood of Jesus. Let’s honor that as holy and sacred. Let’s not justify sin by saying we can be a good example in the middle of Sodom. Let’s keep our hearts, our hands and our eyes pure before a righteous God who sacrificed a lot to make you his.
