let's pull up our own pants

Okay...so, I find this interesting...

There's a faith-based (Christian) spoken word video that has over 3+ million hits. The description is...

"Marriage today is struggling. Divorces, adultery, misconceptions, etc are plaguing not only the marriage itself but products of those marriages (my generation and the next). My hope in this poem is to highlight the most frequent and problematic issues marriages face today while also pointing to Jesus as the ultimate healer, redeemer, and restorer of every marriage. Whether single or married, my intention would be that this poem would allow you to look more deeply to Jesus to either better your current marriage, or prepare for your future marriage."

And I am pretty much good with all of that...really.
The faith part isn't what's interesting. What's interesting is that the video owner has enabled ads in order to generate some capital (via Google AdSense, I think)...and the current video ad that's running before his message is of popular movie clips that show couples in different stages of love and kissing (Fox Movies: "Own The Moments You Love") and all I can think is none of these movie moments support what I am about to listen to...

And, so, I am distracted away from the heart of the message even before I can begin to listen to it (being raised in a Christian environment, I'm pretty much up to date on what he's going to say, anyway...I'm only checking in to hear the beauty of his word play, the passion in his delivery, the hope in his expression)...

My underlying question(s):

Does the video owner not care about the fact that the video is showing -- in a positively sexy these-are-awesome-movies-and-you-know-you-love-them-no-matter-your-beliefs kind of way -- clips of relationships that are built on the "frequent and problematic issues" that create the marital problems that he is, in fact, about to highlight as really serious no-nos.

Is he not paying attention?
Not that I'm fussing. I wouldn't want to check my video each and every day to make sure that I supported the message of the ad that plays before it.

Is the temptation to make a buck from G Ads too tempting to worry about what the ads are marketing? The argument being..."people usually click 'Skip this Ad' anyway, so those who don't probably aren't paying too close attention anyway" (running to grab a drink in the 60 seconds that are available...or maybe their Bible to confirm any actual Biblical passages that he may use...)

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I'm just wondering.
Because, if I believed in something so strongly and wanted to get the message out; if I was representing something sacred, a faith-based message that was super important to me...

Then I'd pay attention to what ads were running; or, I'd cut my losses with AdSense, remove the ad option from that particular video and proclaim my faith without the hope of collecting.

But that's just me.

And, while we're talking about it anyway...

The issues that plague marriages today and the consequences of how those problems are dealt with are indeed a serious problem. Hell, basic relationships are riddled with a myriad of issues that partners can't seem to deal with appropriately...we can't even get to the committed marriage part these days.

Being selfish, having sex and throwing in the towel are "easy" things. No one seems to want to do the hard work that it takes to make a relationship (or a marriage) survive.

Faith doesn't even have a fair chance anymore, because no one seems to have the basic characteristics required for long-term relationship maintenance: patience, concern for another, self-discipline, fill-in-the-blank with some high moralistic personality trait that betrays integrity and long suffering, etc...

Wait. Strike that. We have them in abundance as along as we're happy. The moment things get hard or uncomfortable, the moment we're sad, we seem to run fresh out of anything that would count for vulnerability or selflessness with/for our partner.

And true, the younger generation "suffers" from seeing inappropriate patterns in their elders, but if we (can I still say we? - another birthday is coming up this Saturday) could just pull up our own pants for once instead of always blaming things on "how we were raised" maybe we could fulfill 1 Timothy 4:12.

Imagine: Taking responsibility for our own actions. Finally working as hard as we play, in order to revel in a moment of genuine accomplishment; to really understand, to own the reward of earning something.

(Wow. What a novel idea.)

We reap what we sow, people.
If our relationships, our commitments really (REALLY) mattered to us, we'd do the work and stop bitching about it, because we'd understand that there are sacrifices involved in sharing our lives with someone else.

And, yea, if faith (if Jesus) is going to help you "deny yourself" and walk the road less traveled, then by all means, look more deeply to him for guidance and help for your day-to-day life. But by golly, all I'm saying, is don't use him as an excuse or a crutch.

Own your life. Honor your faith by putting in a little effort.