This idea of fasting and praying for marriage, men and women was conceived in the summer of 2007 at a girlfriends’ beach weekend.
One of us had just broken up with a man she would later marry.
Probably not much, because I’ve been preceded by some pretty amazing women with wise words.
So as I contemplated how to wrap up my season of writing regularly about singleness, I figured the best way is to part with some stories. Me: No RM: Can you hurry up and get married so you can buy my washer and dryer? Why do people assume single people don’t participate in normal life activities like owning houses and appliances?
I long for the new heavens and the new earth with our worship-worthy Jesus smack dab in the middle of it all, reigning, mysteriously powerful and intimately loving, among his people from every neighborhood and community, every culture and ethnic persuasion. Pray might be ending, but our real journey continues—towards Him who has no end!
Nine years ago I would have thought that such a longing was hyper-spiritualized at best, a depressing copout at worst. And then, with a little wink and twinkle in my eye, I tack on (because our God is good and gets our hearts), “And if you want to send me a good guy in the meantime, well, I’d like that, too.” J Thanks for being in this journey together. ~Connally PS: Since announcing that the blog was coming to an end, we’ve had some questions from a reader (also, our friend) who was interested in continuing the blog on an ad-hoc basis.
But the years have shown me that my soul longs to be satisfied in the morning—and spurred forward throughout each day—with the kind of love that never, ever fails. So in nine years, inconceivably to me, my prayer has changed. We’re taking our usual August sabbatical, but don’t be surprised if you see some emails popping up again in the fall from our dear friend Leigh. And we’re grateful that this is perhaps more the end of a chapter than the end of the blog itself.
The third of us was taking time off from a guy with whom she would eventually break up.
My challenge is to not allow these possibly hurtful comments to stick in my heart like arrows, arrows with the poison of bitterness or the potential to cause atrophy.
Whether single beyond the “normal” age, married without children, or another path that challenges convention, people will often not understand and speak words that shoot like arrows.
Well, it worked out that I had 6 people join me for various lengths of my bike ride from DC to Pittsburgh on the C&O and GAP trails. Last Monday morning I set out from camp alone on the trail, biking 64 miles to the next campsite.
I was only by myself for 1.5 days and two nights of the trek. It was going well, until a severe thunderstorm rolled through causing more challenge than one little girl with small-ish muscles was prepared to handle.