I read the news yesterday and it saddened me. Country music singer Randy Travis and his wife of nineteen years, Elizabeth, have divorced. The former spouses are also business partners- she is his manager- and will apparently continue that relationship but the one that matters has been shattered. Websites and gossip shows are always filled with failed celebrity marriages but this one particularly bothers me, if only for one reason: Randy Travis performed, and is probably most noted for, the best marriage song of all time, Forever And Ever, Amen. I guess the final lines to this classic have lost their luster:
If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
Just listen to how this song ends.
I'm gonna love you forever and ever
Forever and ever, Amen.
I guess the cynical part of me now has a different final chorus to think about when it comes to considering the love of a man and woman, Michael Martin Murphey's, What's Forever For:
So, what's the glory in living?
Doesn't anybody ever stay together anymore?
And if love never lasts forever, tell me
What's Forever For?
The Bible uses the term forever 290 times (in the New International Version, at least) and never once in the connotation of marital bliss. Still, the concept of the sanctity of marriage as well as the superiority of its permanence is constant. This morning in our worship service, the focus was on our teenagers. These youngsters, along with their folks, just completed a True Love Waits program based on the Song of Solomon. The young people, with the public blessing of moms and dads, pledged their sexual purity until their wedding. The parents gave their children a ring to symbolize the commitment and the congregation pledged our support as well. These kids are on the right track but we all know that there are derailments lurking. In the great chapter of love, 1 Corinthians 13, Paul wrote that even after everything else was gone, love, along with faith and hope, would remain with love being the highest virtue. That sounds like forever to me, even if it's not a line in a song.
Applicable quote of the day:
“Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary by-pass. After such a monumental assault on the heart, it takes years to amend all the habits and attitudes that led up to it.”
Mary Kay Blakely
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
Forever and Ever,Amen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgJXbIP83A8
What's Forever For?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UalVQCCTNPg
2 comments:
Loved this post. I was just what I needed!
This post made me also think of forever love in the Romans 8:38-39 verse. "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to seperate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". Now that is a love that lasts forever! And also being a music fan, it makes me think of the first few verses of the beautiful song by Dan Fogelberg, "Longer". It's almost as if it is God singing of his love for us, as well as his desire to have a relationship with us....
Longer than there've been fishes in the ocean,
Higher than any bird ever flew,
Longer than there've been stars up in the heavens,
I've been in love with you.
What a "forever" love that is!
Here is the whole Fogelberg classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Go6I2_PpBU&feature=related
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