Where God's Word Meets Our Mess
I started the series by discussing that marriage is good, so desiring marriage is perfectly fine (Part 1). I continued the series by discussing that marriage isn’t guaranteed at a certain time, so forcing/rushing marriage is foolish (Part 2). But today, we’re going to face the most difficult—yet most beautiful—truth in the series: Marriage isn’t guaranteed on earth, so fixing our eyes on heaven is essential.
As a “follow up” to my new book, I wanted to publish a series of posts about the question “What if I never get married?” because it can feel like such a haunting question for single girls, including yours truly. In short, this series addresses this question from a balanced, biblical perspective. Part 1 (which you can read here if you missed it) focused on the truth that marriage is good because God created it. Part 2 is about this truth: Marriage isn’t guaranteed at a certain time.
Although God’s plan for me probably includes marriage, I don’t know for sure—and that’s why the question “What if I never get married?” haunts me. I simply don’t know. If this question haunts you too, I think you’ll benefit from this post (and the upcoming posts in this series). We'll wrestle with this question together, friends. But we'll start this series by focusing on this specific truth: Marriage is good because God created it.
Although I consider this an Easter-themed post, I’m going to focus on a conversation Jesus had after He died and rose again. His disciples encountered Him at the Sea of Tiberias, and He performed a miracle, providing an abundant catch of fish for them. After Jesus ate breakfast with them, He had a conversation with Peter—a conversation from which we can glean a very important lesson as we prepare for Easter.
Deep down, I know I’m not truly behind my friends and acquaintances who have husbands and children. I realize God’s plan for me is perfect, just as His plans for them are perfect. But I still feel behind. This feeling—and the way we choose to handle it—is the focus of this post. We’re going to explore the God-honoring way to handle it by diving into an Old Testament story.
But in that moment, I realized I might not be able to catch up with my friends. They were going so quickly, and I was going so slowly. As I resumed the race, a question popped into my head: How did we all start in the same place and end up in such different places?
I’m asking myself this question because exactly 10 years ago, I published my first post on this blog. Frankly, I feel like the answer to this question is “no” sometimes. Yes, I press on, even when I notice an inexplicable drop in blog views…and when I lose blog followers…and when I remember my plan to become a famous author remains unachieved. But what if I shouldn’t press on? What if this isn’t worth it?
In last week’s post, I talked about a very brief side gig I had a few years ago that drained me. I wasn’t drained by the people I worked with or the organization I worked for; I was simply drained by having a part-time job in addition to having a full-time job. After about six months, I quit because I couldn’t handle having a side gig anymore—but I learned a valuable lesson from the experience. Whether you’re hoping to find a side gig or not, I think it’ll be helpful.
I used to hear things like “God can change the desires of your heart,” but I severely doubted it. After all, I had (and often still have) very strong desires. However, over the past few years, God has changed my mind about His ability to change the desires of my heart.
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