A Favor to Ask
Time and other circumstances have kept me away from the blogging world for a few days. I miss it, but I can’t dive back in today for very long either. So, let me just say this. I often use this space for my attempts at humor. I love laughing and joking and being sarcastic. I’m glad that my blogging has brought me into contact with so many people who enjoy the same. But today, I need to be a bit more serious and ask something from you and then I promise I’ll go back to trying to be more entertaining.
My heart has been pretty heavy for a few weeks now. It seems that all around me the marriages of my friends are breaking down or falling apart. Remember back in college and right after when it seemed like all your friends were getting married and you spent entire summers going from Church to Church hearing vows exchanged? Well, now here I am more than 10 years removed from that and instead of happily lending my witness to the beginning of two lives becoming one, I see friend after friend separating from their husband or wife and struggling the best they can to not leave their kids the victims.
I bring no judgment here for all these people who can’t make their marriages work. I have no lectures about commitment or duty. Sadly, I don’t even have much in the way of wisdom to offer to stem the tide. What I do have, though, is the almighty God who not only created us but gave us love and marriage to begin with. He is my close friend. I talk to Him all the time and He listens and incredibly, sometimes changes the world around me at my request. I know that many of you who read this blog share this same relationship. If you do, please do me this favor. Take just a moment and thank God for your wife or your husband if you are married. If you are not, just thank God for showing us how to love each other. And finally, whether you are married or not, ask God to protect my marriage and those of my friends. Many of you don’t know them, but God does. If you know Him, He will listen to you. And He will change things.
And right now, things need changing.
I’m sorry to be so heavy in what is usually a light-hearted space. But this is what is on my heart today and I wouldn’t share this with you if I didn’t believe some good could come of it. I know God will bring something good from this when He hears our prayers.
Thank you.
My heart has been pretty heavy for a few weeks now. It seems that all around me the marriages of my friends are breaking down or falling apart. Remember back in college and right after when it seemed like all your friends were getting married and you spent entire summers going from Church to Church hearing vows exchanged? Well, now here I am more than 10 years removed from that and instead of happily lending my witness to the beginning of two lives becoming one, I see friend after friend separating from their husband or wife and struggling the best they can to not leave their kids the victims.
I bring no judgment here for all these people who can’t make their marriages work. I have no lectures about commitment or duty. Sadly, I don’t even have much in the way of wisdom to offer to stem the tide. What I do have, though, is the almighty God who not only created us but gave us love and marriage to begin with. He is my close friend. I talk to Him all the time and He listens and incredibly, sometimes changes the world around me at my request. I know that many of you who read this blog share this same relationship. If you do, please do me this favor. Take just a moment and thank God for your wife or your husband if you are married. If you are not, just thank God for showing us how to love each other. And finally, whether you are married or not, ask God to protect my marriage and those of my friends. Many of you don’t know them, but God does. If you know Him, He will listen to you. And He will change things.
And right now, things need changing.
I’m sorry to be so heavy in what is usually a light-hearted space. But this is what is on my heart today and I wouldn’t share this with you if I didn’t believe some good could come of it. I know God will bring something good from this when He hears our prayers.
Thank you.
Comments
As for being thankful for Tim, you know I have always said that Tim is far, far better than I deserve. I mean it...with all my heart. I'm going to go tell him so right now...between innings, of course.
If this is true when withholding something as mundane as a cup of cold water, how much more true is it when withholding the gift of prayer on a struggler's behalf?
Prayer is never the "least we can do" for another, it is always the best thing we can do. Pray, then act.
Thirty-eight years and counting...made possible through prayer, built through prayer, kept through prayer.
Glad to grant your favor and join you in prayer for those whose dancing has turned to mourning. What a different people we would be if we just prayed for each other. May God open our eyes to his peace.
I can't even imagine how my life would be if I didn't have my lovely bride of almost 26 years. She is my best friend, lover, mother of my son, and ministry partner.
Chin up my West Coast Brother.
And you're right, it makes me so much more appreciative of my wonderful wife and realize what a gift she is from God.
May God grant us all the ability to put others, especially our spouses, above ourselves.
As your fellow Flash-fan said below, it is a lie of satan to foil marriages. Churches can often play accomplice by making each of us think that we are not like the others who attend because we screw up, because we are truly hurting, or because we are failing in relationship. The truth is that God wants to redeem relationships between us as much as He wants a relationship with us. He calls us to unity and that starts at home. Satan knows and is flanking.