Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  – Ephesians 4:32

kay, faithful readers, prepare yourselves for several posts around the subject of marriage. Rebekah and I spent Friday evening and Saturday at the rehearsal and wedding of a dear friend. Then next weekend we’ll be in Virginia Beach for our niece’s nuptials.

Additionally, several friends (here in Florida, in other states and abroad) have recently gone through difficult divorce scenarios. So there are ongoing conversations about staying together to work things out, when “enough is enough,” how God views divorce, and what steps we can all take to more effectively honor one-another and our marriage vows.

For me (and the day-to-day journey that is my marriage with Rebekah)  relationships that honor God and each other are a key element in this “Life-Charged Life” I’m always talking about.

DON AND GAY: Friday afternoon Rebekah and I drove to Keystone Heights for an intimate wedding rehearsal and dinner for our friends Don and Gay. Don directs our church Praise Ensemble, and he asked me to play some guitar at the wedding.

At dinner I offered a toast. I don’t remember exactly what I said but the gist of it went something like this:

One of the first times I met Don was at the hospital after his “cardiac event” in 1999. Essentially, what needed to happen in order for Don to move forward in his life, was that Don be willing for God to be involved in the healing his heart. 

More recently, Don’s heart has needed further healing, and Gay has been a huge part of helping make that happen. So my toast – understanding that Gay, too, has needed to experience this grace – is more of a prayer; it’s a prayer that both Don and Gay will continue to be party to the ongoing grace and unconditional love of God that is the only way they have a prayer of continuing to grow and to share this blessing with others through their new marriage….

COOL PEOPLE: Rebekah and I met some seriously cool people in Keystone Heights, people who love God without reservation and who are not afraid to wear that love on their sleeve; in fact, they wear it right on the front of their faces.

My bottom line “take-away” from Don and Gay’s wedding is this: God is all about relationships that honor Jesus, and that model the selflessness, unconditional love, goodness, generosity, kindness, respect and mutual encouragement that represent the Christlike graces Paul labelled “the fruit of the Spirit.”

Both Don and Gay have been married before. And I know beyond any doubt that God was deeply grieved when those marriages ultimately failed.

Does that mean God is unable or unwilling to bless this new relationship? No, of course not. We all fail, so very often. Sometimes we fail in small ways, and sometimes the failures are monumental. The failure of a marriage is monumental – but we are all “works in progress” and God is willing to continue to put in the work.

GRACE: A marriage that works is a testimony to God’s faithfulness and grace,  to a mutual commitment to the practice of grace-laden love, and to hard work by both people in the equation.

The beauty of a wedding like Don and Gay’s is but a momentary shooting star of promise. The future of the relationship depends on weeks, months and years of practice.

May God bless this union, and may Don and Gay bless one-another with the practice of grace-laden love.

– DEREK