“Be careful what you ask for..”- the saying goes – “You might just get it”.

There is a tired church joke about a young man who joined a certain congregation with a sole purpose of finding himself-to borrow the biblical phrase – a “fair maiden”.

And in the same congregation, a young woman had also joined with the same intentions.

And the two, not born gain, indeed got married.

Fast forward, the two confessed somewhere in their marriage how they had actually joined the congregation for a particular reason. right,that one. Look at what happened, two “googlers” had actually found each other, not sure whether to call that the lord’s faithfulness too or…

And the scenario is typical today; it’s not foreign to hear a Christian brother chasing a fair maiden “at all costs.”  Neither is it unfamiliar to have reflective and moody single church girls at a former classmate’s wedding every Saturday.

And there is almost nothing wrong with that, after all marriage is “honorable to all”(Heb 13:4) and singleness is the first thing the lord called “not good.”(Gen 2:18)

Problem is, the pursuit of this wonderful God-ordained institution has left some of us disoriented and more like 21st century idolaters, with marriage as our golden calf.

Almost weekly bridal showers leave many twentysomething single ladies gasping, facebook updates about changed relationships leave many of us dehydrated –wait,of course not literally.

But you get my drift? I mean, it’s like you don’t need to look further than the nearest Church if you are looking for marriage enthusiasts.We are often there.

Treating matrimony the way the Israelites treated their gold ear rings (see Ex 32:2)  ; we gather them,burn them and curve out our golden calf -marriage.

Afraid a good thing  is becoming a “god” thing,more like we are loving the gift more than the giver. Could Marriage be fast  becoming the ultimate of today’s Christian life ? A “finish line” for many of us Christian young adults? – You and me.

I can almost hear somebody say, come on Eddie, you are just a growling decade-long bachelor, but wait, Isn’t the Lord supposed to be “our portion in the land of the living” (Ps 142:5)? Married or not.

We’ll take it  further, hasn’t Jesus named “loving our wife more than him” (Matthew 10:37) as one of the disqualifications of a disciple?

Isn’t God what we need most deeply? as in, most deeply,before and after salvation, at the wedding meeting and the honeymoon? For better for worse?

Didn’t I hear somebody cry out  in the Psalms?

“Whom do I have in heaven but you? heaven and earth have nothing i desire besides you.” (PS 73:25)

Nevertheless,I hope to see you at your wedding.

And I hope that even on that aisle, as your mate’s eyes stand fixed on you, ready to say “I do”, your heart will keep growling like King David’s.

“The lord is my portion,in the land of living.” (Ps 142:5)