The Single Perspective

Get ready for this one...it may be long and involved.

So, I'm one of those hopelessly single people.  And when I say hopelessly single I mean hopelessly single.  How I wish this wasn't true, I want nothing more than to meet someone who will sweep me off my feet and into the sunset and all that.  I understand that marriage is something to be valued and desired.

Here's the thing, though: I'm hopelessly single, if you didn't catch that above.  Although it could change some day (and oh how I hope that will be the case), it's getting on my nerves to be constantly told in various ways that my singlehood is preparation for marriage.  So, perhaps it is.  But, perhaps it isn't.  Isn't it a bit presumptuous to assume that just because I want to be married that God will just pull some strings so that I get married?  

I think that's absolutely ridiculous.

Here I am, trying so insanely hard to be content - trying in the midst of crushes and silent rejection and drama to honor God in the here and now.  Trying to give Him my whole heart and my whole life.  And it's very frustrating to hear again and again how wonderful marriage is.  Because I'm not there.  I might never be.

Yes, I know that you're very happy to be married.  I would be so blessed to be in your position.  God knows how much I want it.  But I'm single.  And this may be what God has for me.  I must learn to wait on Him.  I must learn to find contentment and joy in the place God has brought me.  I must learn to prepare myself to honor God with my whole life - no matter what form that takes.  I do not know, and neither do you, what God has for my future.  And so until then, I must recognize the inherent blessing that is the single life.  I must learn to appreciate the opportunities it brings, and I must learn to allow my loneliness to spur me to love my neighbor.  

Because at the end of the day, I think the Christian life is so much bigger than getting married, my 20s so much bigger than preparation for the day I'll walk down the aisle, assuming that day comes.  I think God calls me to love fully, to serve radically, and to dream big dreams.  

And so I will try to learn to follow Jesus in my singlehood, and even into my singlehood.  I don't know what is coming down the path, but I do know that Jesus honors and blesses single people just as he does those who marry, and that He even chooses some to remain single.  To be counted worthy of any service to my King is breath-taking.  May I live in the promise that God knows me and loves me and has the best for me.