HITCHED!

A venerable “dawg” got married yesterday. Ashish, aka Canis conditor—the founding “dawg.” (For more on the erstwhile “Dawgs” at the University of Aberdeen, see here and here.) To add my humble barks to that canine’s celebration, I, Canis medicus, made a day trip to San Antonio.

In the guest book, as I scratched in my name, I noticed a column for “comments.” I couldn’t resist. My sage remark was, I confess, a plagiarism.

“It is not good,” I wrote, “for the man to be alone.”

Persnickety scholars of Scripture will immediately point long and bony fingers at my theft; the Lord, Himself, uttered those words long ago as He went about creating humankind.

"It is not good
for the man to be alone;
I will make him a helper
suitable for him."
Genesis 2:18

Why, then (they invariably ask me), did you decide to remain alone?

Because (I invariably answer them) I was born single!

But ...

By all means marry.
If you get a good wife,
you'll be happy.
If you get a bad one,
you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates

Seriously …

Mine is not vocational singleness (for professional reasons), ideological singleness (for philosophical reasons), biological singleness (for physiological reasons), provisional singleness (for practical reasons, single until …), etc. It is ecclesiological singleness—by choice, for life, unto Christ, in community.

Does that sound too extreme? It wouldn’t have, to Paul … or Jesus, for that matter! Or to Jeremiah, John the Baptizer, Augustine, Aquinas, or Francis of Assissi; or to Handel, Isaac Watts, Amy Carmichael, or John Stott. All singles. And I am proud to be a midget in the company of these giants—a single.

This is not a screed on marriage! Not at all! According to Paul, either state is a gift:

… each person has
his own gift from God
one in this manner
[to be single],
and another in that
[to be married].
1 Corinthians 7:7

They are both valid and valuable platforms for fruitful ministry unto God. The question is: What is your gift?

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 7, does highlight the advantages of lifelong singleness for ministry.

But I want you to be
free from concern.
One who is unmarried
is concerned about
the things of the Lord,
how he may please the Lord;
but one who is married
is concerned about
the things of the world,
how he may please his wife,
and his interests are divided.
The woman who is unmarried,
and the virgin,
is concerned about
the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy
both in body and spirit;
but one who is married
is concerned about
the things of the world,
how she may please her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:32–34

It is true, there is an unusual degree of freedom a single person has: freedom to focus on the body of Christ, freedom from co-scheduling with family, freedom to suffer, …. For those reasons, I decided, about two decades ago, to forego the preoccupations (and pleasures) of family life. My personality, my passion for ministry, what profit I had witnessed as God used me—all led me to that momentous decision.

And what will I lose, you ask? Nothing!

No good thing
does He withhold
from those
who walk uprightly.
Psalm 84:11

No good thing is beyond the grasp of any of God’s children, whether single or married … as long as they walk uprightly. Our God is a faithful God, a providing God.

So what will you choose for His glory? Marriage … or singleness? What is your gift?