Happy Single's Awareness Week!

It is Single Appreciation Week…welcome. This week is the one week out of the year that ends in a day making single people who are not in relationships feel left out, miserable and alone, right?

 

It doesn’t have to be that way. I know some people who choose to boycott the day by going out with friends. I know other people who decide to drown themselves in alcohol. And others who choose to make the best of it by not allowing the absence of a relationship to cloud their happiness.

Each of us has the ability to choose our mood and how we react to events. I know someone who sees the negative in EV-REY-THING… and it is SO annoying. He cannot seem to get past the past, holding slights and offenses (real or imagined) against people for years. Usually it doesn’t matter if the offender knows what they did or not – he still holds a grudge.

I try to find myself in the middle. I can get down sometimes when something affects me, but I choose to look at life as the “glass half full,” knowing that things will always get better. 

The thing about love is this: people (me included) put too much of our worth into how much we are loved by other people. If you aren’t in a relationship, you have no value, unless the married people need you to babysit. Ok, maybe it’s not that bad, but still. I was in the single’s Sunday School class at my church a few years ago and at that time, two different couples were getting married. The teachers (a married couple) were SO excited about one of the couples and basically ignored the other one. 

Soon after the marriages took place – about a month apart – the teachers left the class to teach in a married class. The wife pretty much ignored me, even with my many attempts to communicate with her by phone, email and in person. My only understanding of it is this: I wasn’t married, so I wasn’t worth any of her time. And that hurt, a lot. Because I was not willing to settle for some guy who wasn’t right for me just so I could be a part of her life.

Her loss, not mine.

My best friend is married, and her family has basically become my family. We hang out, have meals together, her daughter says I’m ‘next best thing’ to her mom, her son is the only male I allow to watch my child without adult supervision… and they never make me feel like I am something less because I am not married.

The whole reason I bring this subject up is because of the people you interact with every day – whether or not they love you does not matter. Do you hear me? IT. DOES. NOT. MATTER.

Why doesn’t it matter? Shouldn’t our family and friends love us? Well yes, they should, but you know how that goes. You have an argument with a family member, they throw stuff in your face that you did or didn’t do many years ago and then you don’t talk to each other for awhile. There are misunderstandings with friends that cause problems. It is what it is… normal human interaction. And life goes on.

Who can you think of that loves you unconditionally? Single, married, sinful nature, ugly words and thoughts, bad decisions and all… who? Only one person, and He doesn’t hold anything you do against you. You don’t have to ‘be a better person’ for Jesus to love you. He loves you anyway. He died for you!

When you are feeling alone, miserable, depressed or just plain unloved, call on Jesus. He will be there. He is always there. Nothing, no one, no thing, can separate us from the love of God. Fall in love with Him, and you will never feel unloved again. 

Romans 8:31-39 (NASB)

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus is Better...

I suffered a loss on Sunday – along with a whole bunch of other football fans. My Denver Broncos were not ready for that game. I don’t know what happened, except that Seattle came to play, and Denver didn’t. I still love my Broncos – that’s not going to change!

The main reason I bring up the game is Russell Wilson’s comments after the game. Wilson is a Christian, and he is pretty vocal about his faith.

In fact, Russell recently sat down with some teammates and coaches for an interview about their shared Christian faith, and when he was asked to tell a little bit about his story, he said this about his faith:

I wouldn't be where I am today without Jesus. Jesus is my all; He's my everything. I'm not perfect by any means. I try to do things the right way. I try to live righteous. But I'm a constant work-in-progress. We all are. Nobody's perfect. That's the amazing thing about Jesus. He takes you for who you are. For me, it's just [about] giving him all the glory.

Russell continued,

We [my Christian teammates and I] talk about playing for an Audience of One. An Audience of One truly is playing for the Lord, playing for Jesus Christ. People always ask me, "Russell do you ever get nervous for games? Do you worry or anything like that?" No. Not at all. When I step out on the field, [I believe] God's put me on that field for a reason, in front of 80,000 people for a reason. I truly believe that through my play, hopefully, that I change people's lives.

Later, Russell was asked to sum up what Jesus means to him. He answered,

Jesus is love. At the end of the day, we are all looking for someone to comfort us, somebody to be there for us at all times. When we are at the worst times of our lives, when we are battling with something, or struggles, whatever it may be, when we are at our highest point as well, when things are going really well, we want somebody to comfort us and be there for us and to say, “Well done.” That's Jesus. Jesus has always been there. He'll never leave you, never forsake you.

I don’t know what it is like to be a millionaire football player who has to ‘work’ in front of 80,000+ screaming people. I don’t know what it is like to be in the spotlight and have your every move analyzed to death by critics. I do know what it is like to be a Christian in a world filled with temptations and people who want to see you fall. And fail. And succumb to a sin-filled life.

Our world has become one where lines are crossed, and sitting on the fence is commonplace. I was talking to a professed Christian a few days ago and he was telling me that “his (then) girlfriend would never sleep over when his child was there.” To me, that is crossing the line. Even if the man and his girlfriend were not sleeping in the same room, the appearance is such that they are living a secular life that does not resonate with what Christ would desire for us. We are not able to be without sin, but inviting it in by allowing lines to be crossed or sitting on the fence on issues that hurt God (abortion, homosexuality, having sleepovers with your boyfriend/girlfriend and so on) show apathy towards your relationship with Christ.

Russell Wilson and other famous professed Christians have a much bigger light on them than the rest of us do. It’s easier to point fingers when someone is ‘bigger’ or ‘richer’ because they seem to fall so much harder and further. But don’t forget this one simple fact – God sees ALL sin as the same. Murder is the same as lying. Don’t be so quick to point those fingers.

The guy just wins the Super Bowl for his team for the first time in franchise history and he’s talking about how Jesus is better than the Lombardi trophy. How cool is that? He lives this verse:

 1 John 2:15-16 (NASB)

¹⁵ Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.