Shedding Light and Understanding on the Gift of Singleness
Frieda Fruitcake writes: How wonderful to see such light and understanding cast upon the holy Gift of Singleness by the learned Michael Lawrence*, particularly in these troubled times when some unmentionable people (Debbie Maken - urgh!) are questioning the very existence of this most blessed Gift.The Gift of Singleness should now apparently be seen as "the gift of the circumstance that (we) are in."
This is all just too exciting!
I simply cannot wait to see what is going to turn up as a Gift next!
The Gift of Unemployment?
The Gift of Sickness?
The Gift of Hunger?
And surely what will turn out to be one of the most gracious endowments of all time...
The Gift of Toothache!
It's so wonderful to witness the Lord work in such a new way, whereas previously Jesus told us that our Heavenly Father would give us only good gifts!
Praise the Lord - the new God of gifts no one wants!
* Michael Lawrence has served as associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church since 2002, after having earned his Ph.D. at Cambridge University and M.Div. at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Michael and his wife have four children.
posted by Captain Sensible at 4:49 PM
3 Comments:
I don't really understand why Pastor Lawrence would refer to Peter for "circumstantial singleness" either. To give credit to the people at Capitol Hill Baptist (where incidently my husband went while doing his undergraduate), many of those folks on pastoral staff are advocating to their young people to seriously pursue marriage. But then, they say these things that only adds to the confusion and undermines their central message. It's almost like no sermon on singleness is complete until it is subject to multiple interpretations.
There is this "democratic" spirit at work in the discussion and just this overt need to be all things to all people, hoping that controversy was diffused. The only problem is that this unholy spirit has caused one generation of singles to suffer greatly by making them miss out on the benefits of a timely marriage.
Debbie Maken
Is it really so hard for these Christians to say "I'm sorry. We got it wrong about the 'gift of singleness'."?
Seems to me that a lot of secular leaders are able to say that; in the world of commerce, medicine, high profile media figures -- even in politics sometimes :)
But the Christian leaders and writers?
No, they seem to want to wriggle and squirm and offer woolly definitions and lengthy explanations, so that they can present themselves as having meant something different all along...
It's all a bit shameful, really.
I like the Gift of Flat Tires.
Or the Gift of Acne.
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