Let's Stay Open

I don’t know anyone who marries who doesn’t desire the best for their future together. This is especially true for the bride. She’s dreamed for years of her prince charming and now here she is committing her life to him in marriage. The groom’s thoughts may not go as deep, but he’s just as committed to a happily-ever-after life together. Unfortunately, statistics tell us that more than fifty percent of these dreams are dashed by divorce. What went wrong?

As complicated as the male-female relationship can be, it’s sometimes as simple as staying open to each other. Let me explain. When God created us, he created us as one person with three distinct parts - body, soul and spirit. To stay open to your mate is to give all of who you are to them. By God’s design, it begins with the spirit. It’s through our spirit that we connect with God, and it is also through our spirit that we discern a natural connection with someone or not.

As a relationship grows, a soul connection is developed. We often describe this as becoming soul mates. It’s here where a deeper connection is experienced. The soul can be described as the place where our mind, will and emotions reside. When our soul opens up to another person, they tap into the depths of who we are. A deep bond is experienced.

Although many people get this backwards, the body connection is to be the last of the three parts to connect. After someone has discerned spiritually that there is a natural connection, the soul opens up to welcome the other person in to see who we really are. It’s then that a commitment to marriage can be best determined and finally a physical connection experienced. This body connection is to be respected and reserved for the couple who has committed their spirit and soul to marriage. I know this sounds old-fashioned but God designed it that way for a reason. When a couple opens up fully to one another, they experience what the Bible describes as a oneness experience. They are connected in spirit, soul and body.

So what causes this to break? Well, it’s a lot of things but simply put, someone in the relationship begins to close down rather than stay open. Imagine your hand representing who you are. Your fingers, wiggling and moving freely, represent your spirit. The semicircular ridge where your fingers meet the palm of your hand represents your soul, and the palm of your hand is your body. When things are good, your fingers are wiggling and happy, the hand is wide open and ready to reach out to embrace the other hand.

When offenses enter into a relationship, the fingers start to close over the hand and things begin to shutdown. The longer this goes on, the hand actually becomes a fist and the fight is on. Let’s stay open and work toward experiencing the oneness God desires for us.

Learn more at www.newlifeonline.com or follow Steve Lingenfelter on Twitter, @stevOLL.

Life Without Hope

Can you imagine it? Can you imagine a life without hope? I don’t want to - it’s just too depressing. Recently, my wife and went to see the movie “The Fault in Our Stars.”

I thought it would be an inspiring story. It’s a story about a young girl who is battling cancer who meets a charming young man. He also battled cancer and they fall in love. This story had all the right elements to be an inspirational story, but it was missing one element - hope.

The first two-thirds of the movie were pretty good and you hoped the best for them. However, the last third of the movie was dark, gloomy and depressing. Don’t worry, if you haven’t seen the movie, I won’t ruin it by telling the end. I will say that it is a disappointing ending. I don’t say that because of a lack of reality in that I believe every story has a happy ending. I say that because this story lacked hope beyond the cancer.

The ultimate reason that you and I exist, as well as everything in the universe, is to show God’s glory. Without God’s glory, there would be nothing. Look around … everything created by God reflects his glory in some way. We see it everywhere, from the smallest form of life to the vast Milky Way. Sunsets, stars, storms and seasons all reveal God’s glory. All creation screams “Glory to God!”

The people depicted in this movie saw none of that. To miss the glory of God is to miss hope. Hope is less a feeling and more a confidence in what is. Faith in God is rooted in hope. Not a blind hope desiring something that will probably never really happen, but a hope built upon the confidence of solid faith.

Faith is described in the Bible this way: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

We have a hope established on the faith we have in God. There certainly is mystery in the midst of our hope and faith. There are things that we just don’t know. However, there is so much more that we do know that strengthens our faith and allows us to trust in the things we don’t understand because of what we do know and understand.

To have no hope is to be hopeless. To believe that this life is all there is and to miss the promise of an incredible life after this one makes this life something less than hope-filled. Life without hope is to miss the life God so desires for us.

Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full.”

Placing our faith in Jesus Christ gives us incredible hope - in this life and the one to come. No one should ever face the trials of this life without the hope God offers.

Learn more at www.newlifeonline.com or follow Steve Lingenfelter on Twitter, @stevOLL.