Will I Ever Get Married?
Most of us have at one point or another wanted to know what the future would hold for us. A big exam, a job interview, a long-anticipated date, those three dots indicating that someone is typing a text message, or some other major life event may have us scrambling for signs and portents of what is to come. The future is like a darkened mirror in which we see shadows and dim reflections of our hopes and fears. Often, when events eventually unfold, the reality bears no resemblance to what we thought it would be, but our expectations of the future can have a massive impact on the here and now. It’s a good thing to want to get married. After all, Proverbs 18:22 says pithily, “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.” Presumably, the same goes for her who finds a husband. As creatures that reflect God’s capacity for relationship, we desire connection with others and thrive when in meaningful relationships. As we are hardwired for relationships, marriage is an arena where we can be physically and emotionally intimate with another person within a lifelong commitment. That being said, our culture does have a paradoxical tendency to treat marriage either as the pinnacle of adulting and something we all need to have to be fulfilled human beings or as a pointless archaic institution. On the one hand, more and more people are choosing to simply cohabit or eschew marriage altogether for a variety of reasons. For them, the desire to be married seems misplaced. On the other hand, others place excessive value on being married and think that it is for everyone. The questions “Are you married?” or “When are you getting married?” from family, friends, or church members [...]
