“Hey Bridge, how’s your love life?”
Happy Good Friday everybody!! Anyone feeling a little bit sluggish I’m sure in 3 days time you’ll be back on your feet! (Okay, pretty lame Easter joke, but still… kind of a big deal in my calendar). So apparently Lent is like 40 days right? Casually gone a little bit over because it’s not Easter yet… BUT oh well.
The last 4 days, I’ll be honest, I’ve learnt very little about this no makeup stuff. But I have learnt a lot about God. This is a kind of follow up post from the last one, about relationships and being ourselves and all that kind of stuff. As it’s Good Friday, I kind of just wanted to emphasise that what Jesus did for us he didn’t do lightly. I’m not sure he was up there with the Father scratching his head about what he was going to do that day he became incarnate and turned up in the stable. He knew he had to do it and he did what God wanted. He saved us! HOORAY! 🙂
I’ve used Bridget Jones because basically she’s one of my heroes and I just love her. I’m quite similar to her in many ways (big knickers, obviously). But I’ve found over the recent months, especially since being at uni, that the dreaded question Bridget gets asked as seen up there is probably one of the most awkward and uncomfortable things EVER, especially when surrounded by so many couples and people the lookout. It can be quite unsettling, to say the least. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those single ladies who’s hating it and can’t deal with it because well, honestly, there’s way more to life (I do have a cat now, it’s not my cat, it’s my family’s cat, so definitely don’t count as crazy cat lady just yet!) HA.
This is what I’ve come to realise. My life is in Jesus’ hands – including my love life. I can sit there and pray and pray and pray and nag him like ‘please help me find Mr. Annie’ but is that really what’s important here? How about ‘please equip me to tell people about you’ or ‘help me raise money for the orphans in Romania’ – without sounding like a crazy single lady, genuinely, I think that’s a bit more important.
Paul, in his first letter to Corinthians, said this:
And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. (1 Corinthians 7:17, The Message)
How beautifully apt is that? I don’t think I need to write anymore. I was walking home yesterday (as you do) and I was listening to my music and just in my own little world. I was thinking about the stuff that I wanted to write in this blog and what had kind of triggered it, because I’ll be honest, of course I’ve been the sad single Christian lady at church who is just unbearably AAHH because there is no husband ANYWHERE, and of course I’ve been convinced he’s never going to show up. Through Lent, this stuff has occasionally come up for lots of reasons, mainly because I’ve got all panicked no one will find me attractive without makeup! But anyway. I said a few weeks ago to someone that I see Jesus when it rains. I know he’s with me when it rains. I’m not sure why, I’ve always preferred the rainy days to the sunny ones (the actual ones, not the weather/mental health metaphor here – sunshine all the way where that’s concerned) and for some reason I just see Jesus a bit more in the power of the rain as it pours and thunders and all the rest of it. Yesterday I was walking home as I said, and I was thinking about this and the journey I’ve been on with this stuff. I was listening to Spirit Break Out –
Spirit break out, break our walls down
And it rained.
I walked along smiling to myself, praying those lyrics over my heart and just generally. Jesus got on the cross, willingly for me. If I’m getting worried about where my husband is, and for some people this really isn’t easy so if you’re struggling with this then I’m not trying to downsize the issue at all! But all I realised is that I have a God who loves me, I have a God who willingly got on the cross, suffered, weakened, died. For me. For me. And if I’m worrying about marriage I think my heart might be in the wrong place.
Paul’s right – its God and not your marital status that defines your life. I’m happy for it to stay that way and I’m praying that it can be the same for you if this is something that you’re struggling with for whatever reason!
Ha, another Bridget Jones image! 🙂 She’s just fab. I saw this picture, and my immediate response was laughter of course, mainly because of the Ben and Jerrys, but also because that’s something I think most of my friends and I have thought at some point. Then I remembered the question from the top, and I felt a serious peace.
Sorry this isn’t a long one, guys. It’s just been a pretty straight forward message instead of one of my rambles! But I hope it made sense.
Hey Annie, how’s your love life?
It’s in Jesus’ hands.
Peace and blessings x
Picture from Amy T and Amy Jelf on Pinterest 🙂
annieanais: 