Call to Conversion
In our current sermon series in which we are inviting God to examine the condition of our hearts, marriage provides a great metaphor for our call to be God’s partners in the world.
In marriage, there is a responsibility for “continual conversions” across the life of the relationship. Once the initial wave of the euphoria of love is past, both partners have to lay aside their own agendas and to begin committing themselves to “stoking the fire” of the relationship they have begun. Across time, the “conversions” needed to keep the relationship strong may not be obvious and the partners must learn to “read the signs” of their interactions if communication begins to become strained. In those times, self-reflection is needed by both before asking, “Why are we having trouble and what do we need to improve so that our love can grow stronger than ever before?” Constant “reckonings” and constant conversions are required to make the relationship flourish and grow.
Preference or Totality?
Robert Morris shared in a devotional that marriage is not so much seeking homogeneity in both learning to love the same things, but rather a realization across time in the discovering the difference in the delights for each partner and learning to support and encourage each other’s interests in a responsible manner.
Just as there is something terrible about a spoiled child who grew up getting everything (making them ill-suited for any lasting relationship requiring give-and-take), the challenge is doubled in a marriage where one pursues interests to the detriment of both.
Morris writes that, “any goal, whether scaling of Mt. Everest, learning to play the piano, or cultivating a friendship imposes its own limits. Rules, sacrifices and disciplines are essential to reaching the goal.” These disciplines required to maintain and enhance a relationship are the building blocks of love.
Love Manifest
The danger in describing a life of the necessary “conversions” across a marriage (and in our relationship with God) is giving the wrong impression that the relationship is just one long, dry day of sacrifice and compromise after another. Rather, through the difference-making blessing of God’s love in the relationship, we are able to go through “thick and sin,” as Morris says, so that our hearts grow in freedom and purpose together.
God’s love and enduring presence is a divine flow of energy that bears all, and is, for all the world.