My Secret Interest Found Out!
During our Christmas break in Salt Lake City, my daughter Rachel came downstairs to find me engaged in an activity she had never witnessed me doing before: “Daddy… I didn’t know you did jigsaw puzzles!”
I don’t, often. But I do enjoy them. The challenge of piling up edges, corners and colors and beginning to pull together 500 unique pieces into a single whole. There is something satisfying about popping that last piece into place and declaring, “There! Done!”
There is a sense in which marriage is a puzzle. Two utterly unique human beings called by God to commit and share their lives together. Most of us aren’t very good at it, honestly. Our American culture has a horrible track record for marriage and—and this is really disheartening—the evangelical church’s track record is not much better. Our own congregation is littered with the lives of people who are dealing with infidelity, separation, divorce… or, even if they are still together, a marriage that is so dull and lifeless that they might as well be living separate lives.
Surely… surely, we can do better? Surely God longs for us to do better. And He knows we can only do better by drawing nearer to Him. We believe He provides principles and teachings in His Word that bring about true transformation.
In this Year of Jubilee when we celebrate a God who can restore what was taken from us, cancel old debts, release people from bondage and allow a time and space for healing, we are crying out, “Jubilee!” to all marriages. Beginning this Sunday, we will offer a four week series called Puzzling Marriage: Putting the Pieces Together. Add to that our Couple’s Life adventure in a few weeks, and this will provide some wonderful resources to those who long for something more from their marriage, who long for Jubilee in that most important of relationships.
But it starts with you! You coming, together. You listening, together. You praying, together. You acting, together, to reclaim what the Enemy has stolen from your life and love.
I hope to see you Sunday as we begin to put together some of the pieces.
Pastor Mark