Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

One of the themes that I hit on occassionally with the Singles Group at Oak Mountain is the idea that singleness is a tremendous gift that, for the most part, has been given to folks for a short amount of time. I believe there is clear biblical teaching that once you're married, take vows, and covenant before God with your spouse, your priorities, focus, and primary ministry area change. You're time, body, and longings are no longer for yourself but for your husband or wife. This isn't true in the same way for singles. To be sure, when Paul writes in I Corinthians 6:19, "You are not your own," he's referring to believers both single and married, but clearly there are typically fewer restraints on singles than there are on married couples, and this ought to change our perspective on our lives in two ways.

The first is that we should be exceedingly grateful to the Lord for freeing us up to spend ourselves for the gospel, the chuch, and other people. And the second is that we should be a group of people who are constantly looking at the clock over our shoulders. . . no, not the biological clock, but the clock that says our singleness isn't a gift we're likely to have forever. This freedom, this lack of constraint to do ministry, this time that we have to devote to caring for others and serving may not be here tomorrow. I firmly believe that God has husbands and wives out there for most of the singles at Oak Mountain, and I pray regularly that those relationships will become known, develop, and end in glorious symbols of Christ's relationship to his bride, the Church. In the meantime, I pray regularly, that we will not use our singleness as an excuse or think of ourselves as somehow "second-class Christians" who have nothing to offer the body or the kingdom.

Here's the thing: singles are racing the clock. We don't typically feel that because we're so busy focused on ourselves and how poor and pitiful we are, but we are, the stakes are high, and the clock is ticking.