Runaway Train

I think marriage is taken so lightly these days. The definition of marriage by our society I think would be something like this, “I promise to love this person as long as they are lovable, to remain faithful to them as long as we are happy, to give as long as they are giving in return, and somewhere down the line when the love runs out I will try to work things out as long as I get what I want in the process and I will do so all the while protecting myself from my partner at all costs, because I will not be taken advantage of.”

My husband and I are not perfect (especially me) by any means, nor do we have the perfect marriage. We do however have a commitment that extends beyond words. Divorce is not a word that is spoken in our home. It is not an option that will ever be out on the table, simply because that’s the way that it should be. Am I saying that we should put up with unimaginable things within our marriages? Absolutely not. But I am saying that we should lay down our own selfish desires to uplift our spouse particularly when they are visibly struggling.

I believe that God created marriage, not for us each to be personally fulfilled by our partner, but rather the opposite, that we might fulfill our partner. I believe He gives each one of us a person that only we can uplift, esteem and love the way He wants to love on them. We are simply vessels on this earth for His love to flow through toward our spouse. It’s not even our love that’s significant. It’s God’s love. By allowing God’s love to flow through us toward our spouse we will be fulfilled in ways we never dreamed possible. I just want us all to be encouraged that in a world that is falling apart around us, there is a Mighty God that wants to piece it all back together for us if we will just let Him.

My prayer is that we will not be consumed by the worldly view of marriage, that we will not look to our partners to fulfill our every whim. But that we will be consumed by an unconditional love toward one another that overlooks any wrongs and that sees the cross through the crimson flow. Let us not be so arrogant as Christians to believe that trouble could never enter our marriages. Let us not look down on our fellow man when their marriages fail. We do not know what lies within it all. We do however know the Mender of hearts, the Creator of marriage, the Healer of broken dreams.

My heart bleeds at the thought of another couple divorcing. Two more people who have decided it would just be easier to go their own way, rather than honoring the commitment of marriage. I could see it coming months ago. It looked as though a split between Jon and Kate Gosselin was imminent. I am not one that has followed their show in its entirety. To be honest, in the last year or two, I couldn't hardly stand to watch it because I didn't want to subject my home to the bickering and tension that aired on their show. However, I have experienced a broken marriage and divorce firsthand so naturally this story of their divorce touches my heart in the deepest of places.

I do not agree with the onslaught of media attention their split has caused. I do not care about the he said/she said plastered across the covers of magazines. I do however care about the conditions of their hearts and the volumes their split speaks to our world. Two people who once proclaimed through their show to be Christians. Two people who started out so long ago as two very different people. On the few episodes I saw, I began to see the marriage crumbling. I would cry out at them to jump off of the runaway train that they both had boarded without even realizing it. I have been on that train myself and I knew that it would lead to destruction.

My hearts cry is that God would intervene in their situation. That He would show up in a way that neither of them expects. I pray that He will put people in their paths that will be bold enough to speak truth into their lives and that His light will pierce the darkness of their hearts. My heart has been unsettled for days about this situation. I believe it's our responsibility as Christians to lift them up in our prayers and to speak truth over them and their reality. We cannot just sit on the sidelines and watch the enemy take another one. I believe God can be glorified in this situation, I know that if we bow our hearts on behalf of this lost couple and those around us with broken marriages, it WILL make a difference in their lives. Join with me today in praying for the broken families all around us. May God open our eyes to the destruction that lies within divorce and grant us the grace to see our spouses as He sees them.

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" Revelation 12:11