"Loved and Single" - A Short Story

Loved And Single
A Short Story By Curtis J. Alexander.

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The man sat down. He thought and he prayed. He was glad that it was all over. He reflected often on the gratitude he felt. He was grateful for peace.

The pain, the strife, the lies he was fed: all of it was gone. God had set him free from her storm. Here he was, now alone, and blessed. He was sipping his hot coffee, reading his 1599 Geneva Bible.
The silence in the halls was an invitation for him to sing and play piano. The empty bedroom, an invitation to stay up later and study God's word or create a new music video.

Oh there was depression for a time. And he went low. He sank down for a time. Had it not been for the Lord, I am sure he would still be in the pits of pity and despair today. But the Lord hoisted him out of those dark days. He brought him into the light.

The man learned not to trust in women or in things or in marriage. He learned to trust in God and God alone. Women can fail. So can men. Marriages can fail. But Jesus never fails. God never fails. God is Love. Love never fails.

Jesus Christ was and is his completion. Jesus completed him. He had known Jesus as Saviour since he was a small child. But this realization of completion came to him in stages as the Holy Spirit would gently pull back the curtain on his understanding of singleness and the Word of God. The man took 2 years to recover from divorce. After that, he began to reopen himself to the possibility of dating again. Yet dating would be sparse, almost non-existent. And in that sparseness came a dense forest of revelation from God, about God. In that sparseness, came a flood of freedom to the man. Freedom from old sins. Freedom from depression. Freedom from a dependance on romance or marriage. Freedom from a dependance on the idea of soul mates. Freedom to create in a variety of ways: music, photography, poetry and lyrics. Freedom to minister to and love God's people at the local church above the train station.
God had indeed taught the man what it means to be fully dependant on Christ alone. In Christ alone was his sufficiency. In Christ alone was his all. And in Christ alone was the courage he needed to walk the walk of a single, divorced pastor. He was growing in his walk as a disciple of Christ. He refused to be defined by the woman who abandoned him in marriage. She had been viewing God as the enemy. And as a result, he suffered for it. So, he refused to let his identity be found in those who could not or would not love him. He refused to be defined by the woman who married him in pretence and had no intention of remaining with him and honouring her vows. Instead He found his identity in his maker and saviour, Jesus Christ. He welcomed the Love of Christ with all his heart, spirit, and mind.

The man grew stronger in Jesus, and in His Love. He moved on in life. He made mistakes too. And learned from them, in grace. As the years rolled by, more new songs emerged from his tongue and his fingers. His didactic music videos lit up a small corner of the internet. He continued to be used by God in the local church family. And single believers began to ask for his ministry. So he began to ask the Lord for guidance and started to teach the singles how to live as a single for Jesus. He relished it. He realized that his life experiences would now be valuable and helpful in expressing compassion and love to those who did not experience a happy marriage and to those who did not experience any marriage at all. He threw himself into teaching the singles ministry.

With some powerful heart-level healing from God, some new light from the Lord, the man would now be ready to walk this new chapter of his life. He would honour his theme verse in 1 Corinthians 7:17... to walk as the Lord called him. He made the decision to leave the door open to a new marriage someday. Perhaps that would be years from now. It did not concern him, because he already found completion in Christ. He found all the love he needs. Through the loss and pain of abandonment and divorce, this man discovered that Christ was all He ever needed. Christ was and is more than able to love the man and fulfill him in every way possible.

This is the continuing story of a man who is loved and single.

 

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CJA Oct 9 2016 4:23pm EST