7 Myths about Singleness

by Sam Allberry

We’re reminded not just that Christ is with us through all of life, but that there are some places only Christ can accompany us.

In the darkest recesses of the valley of the shadow of death Christ will be with us.

I realized that even if I had the best kind of friends this world could offer, it wouldn’t be enough. It never could be. Our deepest aches and yearnings for intimacy will only ultimately be met in Christ.

Such human intimacy is a wonderful gift from God and something each of us needs.

The key to contentment as a single person is not trying to make singleness into something that will satisfy us; it is to find contentment in Christ as a single person.

Now we can add to the list that he’s also the Bread of Life.

But Jesus is not the Bread of Life simply in addition to all the other things he is, but in opposition to all the other things we’re tempted to mistake for it. He’s not informing me; he’s rebuking me.

Sex. Marriage. Romance. Deep friendship. It’s not that they don’t matter at all, but that they don’t matter that much.

I was realizing that, as a Christian, there isn’t anything ultimate I am missing out on by being unmarried. It is a good gift from God, but not an essential or necessary gift.

I’m not going to pretend future meltdowns won’t happen. But I know that it’s not my capacity and strength I need to depend upon. It’s God’s.

Paul is praying that his friends would know something of the greatness of God’s power. It is immeasurable.

But God’s power is immeasurable. There is no unit of measurement and no scale that can be applied to it.

No one comes close to Jesus. No one ever will. This is ultimate and irreversible, unsurpassable and permanent. And God’s power did it. That is how strong God is.

I pray for guidance and for God to be unsubtle.

Instead we need to conform ourselves to him. He’s so much smarter than we are.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, he doesn’t seek to bend God to our ways, but to bend ourselves to his.

We pray for his name, his kingdom, and his will.

Lord, please don’t give me what I want; give me what you want.

Let’s aim for more of God, assured that whatever happens, we will never outpace his kindness to us.