Finding God in the Mysteries of every day

Week 19 day 4

 larrymlawrence.com

Finding God in the Mysteries of every day

Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

            I’m no marriage expert. I don’t think there is one on this side of the veil. I’ve only been practicing for forty-seven years and I still don’t get it right from my side of things all the time. If I have learned anything from this experience it is that forgiveness and forbearance are the true keys to surviving the seasons of married life on this earth. (I am most frequently the one in need of that forgiveness and forbearance.) Eve was given to Adam to complement his God given gifts and abilities. She could do what he could not. In the same way, as much as we try to deny it woman was created to complete a man, he, being able to do what she could not. In all of the political wrangling over sexual freedom and gender equality we are only now beginning to understand the tragic consequences of denying these truths. (If I have stepped on you sociological toes here; Get over it!) The cost we are paying in the current generation is small indeed when we measure that against the cost to future generations.

            For the longest time I have been told that the divorce rate in the Church is the same as that in the world. My response, after twenty-five years of pastoral ministry is Well of course it is. People marry for all of the wrong reasons. People betray marriage for those same reasons. Weddings became big business, and we completely lost sight that there is a vast difference between a wedding and a marriage. [Nearly as vast as the difference between accepting the gift of God’s salvation and actually living a Christian life.] When we understand marriage as being between two people we are missing the point entirely. Even though I didn’t know it at the time, on the day I was wedded to my bride I was reminded that the marriage covenant (promise) existed between three people, myself, my bride, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Living up to that is the greatest adventure a couple will ever undertake.