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Post-Video Pontification
LET’S BEGIN...
- What spoke to you from the Q&A on the video?
Those were just a few of the questions we had time to get to that evening. For now I’m going to flip things back on you and ask . . .
- How would YOU have answered some of these questions?
- What questions remain for you? I would say y’all should know each other well enough by now that you could throw your personal questions out there. But if not, you know where to find me. Hunt around on loveandrespectnow.com; maybe your question has already been asked. The thing I love about the LRN community is finding out that I’m not alone in my questions! As well as sharing that unicorns DO exist. (Trust me, the proof is on my site.)
CLOSING COMMENTS AND PUPPIES
LAMENTATIONS 3:27-28 I want you to return to this passage.
As I ponder this verse, part of me doesn’t like it one bit, and yet, another part of me has grown to realize that this life is about something bigger than dating and marriage, boys and girls, love and happiness. (Shout out to Al Green—and if you don’t know this song reference, do yourself a favor and download “Love and Happiness” right now. Get ready to groove.)
We aren’t promised perfection, although that was the original plan. Now we are set in a broken, albeit temporary, world. And I think that in that broken world we do a disservice to ourselves and our faith journey if we live in distraction as opposed to sitting with the questions that come from our pain or the pain we see inflicted on others.
I’m proud of you for doing this study. For asking the questions, for sitting alone each week and thinking through the topics. And then for gathering together, the way I believe the church was intended to gather—young, old, single, married, male, and female—to seek God, His wisdom, and His plan for marriage and singleness, together.
As a closing gift, I give you one of my favorite verses. I know, I know, you were hoping for a puppy. I’m sorry; I can only do so much. But if it makes you feel any better, you can name this verse Rover.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”12
—Ecclesiastes 3:11
From my heart that hopes to meet your heart in eternity,
Joy
Notes
1 Manjul Bajaj, “Cross-Train Your Brain,” Life Positive: Your Complete Guide to Personal Growth (2003), http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/ Personal_Growth/Cross_train_your_brain12003.asp
2 Deborah Rudacille, “This Is Your Brain on Art,” Urbanite: Baltimore (September 2010): 56–57, http://issuu.com/urbanitemagazine/docs/ september2010_issuu
3 John Gottman, Ph.D., Why Marriages Succeed or Fail (New York: Fireside, 1994), 61.
4 Emerson Eggerichs, Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs (Colorado: Focus on the Family, 2004), 211–212.
5 Eggerichs, Love & Respect, 178.
6 Keith and Kristyn Getty, “Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer,” In Christ Alone, Getty Music Label, LLC, 2006, MP3 file. iTunes.
7 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (1 Co 16:13–14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
8 Manali Oak, “Effects of Music on the Mind,” Buzzle (January 2012). http://www.buzzle.com/articles/effects-of-music-on-the-mind-and brain.html
9 Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage (New York: Penguin, 2011).
10 Linda J. Waite, et al., Does Divorce Make People Happy?: Findings from a Study of Unhappy Marriages (New York: Institute for American Values, 2002), 5.
11 Jeff Shinabarger, More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity (Colorado: David C Cook, 2013).
12 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Ec 3:11). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
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