I will Glory in my Singleness

Sunday, October 24, In the year of our Lord 2010
My House, Caronport Saskatchewan
Just returned from House Church, 3:40 PM
Weather = Overcast, cold, windy (bleak)


It occurred to me last night that if I took my understanding of God seriously then my priorities have been backwards for a while. What do I mean when I say this and how does this relate to singleness?

This is what I mean. It has been a life time goal of mine to be married someday, and for a I while I thought I was really close at accomplishing that goal. I wanted the intimacy of the marriage relationship, the sharing of one's entire life, the opening of one's inner most heart to another, an equal, a loved one, opening to and sharing with me also. Things didn't turn out this way, and has left a very real longing after dealing with the initial shock and aftershocks of the breakup. (My relationship ended very well, in a mutual and respectful fashion which preserved the friendship and respect we still have for each other) The marriage relationship is a good thing to be sure and something that I still desire, but it needs to be seen in its proper perspective.

I have heard it said that marriage is a living analogy that God purposefully crafted to reflect how God has union with Himself (Father Son and Holy Spirit) and how we as Christians have union with Him through Christ Jesus. Here is the issue. If marriage is just an analogy of God's relationship with me, then why and how has the analogy overtaken the reality to which it pertains in my life? My focus should be on Christ and the reality to the analogy I long for. It's like desiring Mom's cooking (an expression of her love to me) to the exclusion the actual relationship with my Mom (which is very precious to me).

Maybe it's no coincidence that Adam was created alone, able to enjoy God without distraction. But God also created Adam in His image which made him long for an equal companion to share himself with. We know the story of what happened and God crafted Eve also in His image and joined the two as husband and wife which completed the image of God so that God has intimacy with Himself and with his image bearers who share in the intimacy with God and flowing from that then with each other. Christ is the one who fulfills. Christ is the one with whom the marriage relationship and the intimacy their in was modeled after. Christ is already placed himself in my inner most being and I have access to Him for all time. So why run about asking God for a wife when I haven't filled myself with the source of what I want which is staring me in the face? Could you imagine the absolutely horrible consequences of trying to find fulfillment in a spouse to the exclusion of Christ who is the very source and Archetype of the relationship you seek fulfillment from?

So I turn to Christ (rather sheepishly) and realize that when I sing

"I will glory in my Redeemer
My life He bought, my love He owns
I have no longings for another
I’m satisfied in Him alone"

that part where it says "I have no longings for another" needs to be taken seriously. I ought to pursue this incredible God revealed in Jesus as though He were my beloved. I barely even know what that looks like. In one of the books I have been reading the author related his relationship with God to his relationship with is wife who told him "I wish you enjoyed me more," which cut him to the heart and changed his marriage. He looked forward to spending time with her but didn't enjoy it, and that acts (at least for me) as an analogy to how I can treat God. This same author also proposed that we become more like what we are focused on. If I am focused on fixing myself or on a life issue then I just become more like myself, which makes me frustrated because I see problems that need to change which makes me focus even harder on the problems thus creating a downward cycle of self destruction.

So I am not actually glorying in my singleness, (even though there are many practical reasons why I could) I am choosing to glory in Christ. Even people that have been Christians their whole life, grew up in the church, and graduated from Bible College need to be reminded of God's love in a radical way every once and a while. How this will take shape is unknown to me, but deliberately taking time out of my schedule to spend time with the person I want to know better should be a generally good start.

So on that note I'm going out into the frigid Saskatchewan pre-winter to chat with Jesus
Greg Out