Greater Blessings

I mentioned this before and if you know me, I have never been otherwise.

I am single. I like long walks on the beach, sunsets, poetry, moonlit walks in the woods in the snow...oh wait...that was for my E-Hamony profile, not here...sorry. Though all of these things are true ; )

I have noticed something and it gets stronger every year I remain single. People around me want me to get married. This is all well and good. They want me to be happy. They want what they have for me.

The problem is, I start to want it.

I am desperately thirsty. There is much beauty and much grace and much growth in marriage. It is God's illustration to us of Christ and his church. There is much that marriage makes real to us: our sinful nature, a practical realization of how much God loves us, a close look into the design that God has for us as humans that function in one body. I get thirsty for that and at times will fix my mind on it.

The problem is, if its not God's time, this want leads me down the wrong path, a path of false intimacy, of depression, of utter distraction and bad stewardship of the gifts and skills God has given me. No amount of "God has a plan," or "The perfect person is waiting for you just around the corner," will satisfy my thirst.

Thank God that he is a generous and giving God. He does not expect me to give up everything for nothing in return. He faithfully gives everything to those who will give up anything.

"Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." Isaiah 56:3-5

"Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,’ says the Lord” Isaiah 54:1

John Piper says this in his exegisis of this passage.

"Take heed here lest you minimize what I am saying and do not hear how radical it really is. I am not sentimentalizing singleness to make the unmarried feel good. I am declaring the temporary and secondary nature of marriage and family over against the eternal and primary nature of the church. Marriage and family are temporary for this age; the church is forever. I am declaring the radical biblical truth that being in a human family is no sign of eternal blessing, but being in God’s family means being eternally blessed. Relationships based on family are temporary. Relationships based on union with Christ are eternal."

In prophesying the coming of Christ and the New Covenant, Isaiah is pointing to a radical shift in culture, that the offspring that God cares about are not phyiscal offspring, but spiritual offspring. This is emphasized in his prophesy of Christ in Isaiah 53, “It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” (quoted and emphasized by Piper in the same sermon).

Now I am not trying to make an unfair judgement on married couples. The reward for spiritual offspring is for all of God's faithful. What the text says is that the blessings of spiritual offspring is better than the blessings of physical offpring, and that one who is barren physically but faithful spiritually can have more spiritual offspring in eternity than one who is married. The math is simple. Marraige takes a ton of time and raising children even more. Parents have to do both, raising phyiscal and spiritual offspring, a full time ministry if there ever was one, one that will have unique heavenly rewards. After all, there must be a next generation of parents and singles to carry on after we are gone right? Singles can take all that time and energy and pour it forth fully to the birthing and discipling of spiritual offspring and God promises to reward us handsomly for doing so.

So what does God do? He takes my thirst for something now and gives me a taste of something greater. In this wilderness, he tells me that singleness is not a space between times, a transition into "real life". He tells me "Come! See what I have for you! I will give you over and abundantly more than you can imagine. Now do my work." I taste and see that the Lord is good and it quenches my thirst.

So to all of those around me who inadvertantly and well-meaningly make me thirsty for something that God does not have for me now, ask me what I am doing, not who I am dating. Pray that I will win souls in my workplace, my ministries, my friendships, not that I will win the heart of a woman. Don't be disappointed when I am not seeing someone, be disappointed when I see a chance to share the Gospel and forgoe it. Whet my appetitie for heaven, not my appetite for intimacy. Make me thirsty for what God wants me to be thristy for and help me run to the fountain of living waters to be filled. I will be happier there than any other place, I promise.

And when the day and opportunity comes when I need the help of another in order to accomplish this call of God, there will be someone there, probably joining me on a beach watching a sunset. I hear the sand at Eagle Creek Resevoir is pretty nice.

Here is the link to John Piper's full sermon. http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/single-in-christ-a-name-better-than-sons-and-daughters