July 3 - Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live,

but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh

I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

ESV

 

Paul Hudson asks other questions …

 

9.   Will you be sure to remind me how much you love me regularly?

 

See the discussion in previous weeks on Love Languages. The art of marriage is learning how to communicate your love to your beloved in a way they can “hear” it and “receive” it.

 

12. Will you promise to continue to purpose your personal goals and dreams?

 

We discussed this a few days ago when we talked about interdependence. Yes … we want to grow together … but it’s bigger than that. Don’t you want (and deserve) someone with bigger ambitions than peaking in life when they reach the altar?!

 

I want someone whose ambitions are higher than those three steps at the front of the church! We deserve someone who – with God’s help – fulfills the sentiments of this classic prayer: Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

13. Will you not allow yourself to let go?

 

When most people ask that, it’s probably a selfish question. “I don’t want to be married to a fat, old lady. So promise me that you won’t let yourself go.” Selfish. (And I kind of said something like that when I got married … and twenty-eight years later, guess which one of us percentage-wise has gained more weight? Mr. Selfish himself.)

 

I like instead what two friends did in their mid-fifties. They said together (partners), “What do we want our lives to look like when we’re 70?” “Fit and active,” they said. So they started exercising together. Closer to seventy today, they are older and still fit and united.

 

15. Can you promise me that if my time is cut short, you’ll continue to live on for the both of us?

 

This is a romance novel sentiment. But God and faith offer something so much bigger.

 

Death is not a “cutting short,” it’s a “greater victory”! (Though we who are left behind will surely mourn – if you love, you grieve.)

 

But when I die, Mary Louise doesn’t have to “live on for the both of us” because I already live on in Christ! I live on because He lives on.

 

My wife doesn’t have to live on for the both of us, because Christ continues to live for the both of us!

 

So how about this for number 15 …

 

15. Can you promise to live a life for Christ, rather than depending on romance novel clichés?

 

Questions for 9, 12,13 and 15:

·         Will you work to find your beloved’s love language and speak love to him/her daily?

·         Will you refuse to let yourself go … while not being so shallow to judge your beloved in those superficial ways?

·         Will you seek to continue to grow in faith, love, service, commitment, generosity, and character?

·         Will you promise to live a life for Christ, rather than depending on romance novel clichés?

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who loves Christ

(and despises worldly clichés)