Psalm 30:5 (NIV) says:

For his anger lasts only a moment, 
but his favor lasts a lifetime; 
weeping may stay for the night, 
but rejoicing comes in the morning. 

Weeping may stay for the night…It’s night because we are weeping. 

We are weeping because we are overwhelmed at the volume of sickness and death we see on television. We are weeping because we have an elderly loved one or an immunocompromised loved one in our family and are afraid that they might contract the disease. We are weeping because those loved ones are contracting COVID-19, getting sick, and dying.  We are weeping because we cannot hug at funerals and must sit six feet apart from the people we need the most while grieving. 

We are weeping because our “normal” has been radically altered. We are weeping because we are afraid of our financial future. We are weeping because we are tired of Zoom calls in a makeshift home office. We are weeping because our children are stressed out with Non-Traditional Instruction, looking to us as parents and guardians to teach facts and figures we long forgot. 

We are weeping because we miss our loved ones. We are weeping because we miss the touch of our parents and grandparents whom we have to interact with through screen doors and windows and on side walks six feet apart. We are weeping because we can’t stop at Mom and Dad’s or Mamaw and Papaw’s for a hug and warm meal. We are weeping because it’s grilling season and we cannot sit down over a burger or dog while watching the Final Four or Opening Day. We are weeping because we miss seeing our friends at worship. 

We are weeping because we see so many essential medical workers weeping. God bless the medical workers across the world. 

Finally, we are weeping because we are overwhelmed. Too much uncertainty, too much pain, too much heartache. We are weeping because we hunger for normal. We are weeping because we don’t know when all of this will end. 

I woke up this morning weeping. For whatever reason, the load finally got to me. The load of everything I listed above along with shepherding so many who feel the same way. I found myself wanting to curl up in a ball, withdraw, and cry. I am weeping. 

We are not alone in our weeping. 

Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus’ followers wept when they saw him beaten and nailed to the Cross. The women who followed Jesus wept as Jesus slowly died a criminal’s death. Jesus’ mother wept as she saw him breath his last breath. The whole world turned dark and wept as Jesus died. I can imagine Joseph of Arimathea wept as he laid Jesus’ broken and bloodied body in the Tomb. The Disciples hid and wept. Mary wept when she couldn’t find the body of Jesus.

11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” 
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there… (Jn 20:11–14, NIV)

“Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”

I’ve been blessed to do some really amazing things in my life. First, there was the opportunity to go to Houston when I was sixteen years old and represent the state of Kentucky at the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation (HOBY) World Leadership Congress. While there, I sang the national anthem at an Astros-Expos baseball game, flew in the real Space Shuttle flight simulator at the Johnson Space Center, and had my first kiss with a girl from Boston. (We were madly in love for four hours.) At the age of seventeen, I received a congressional appointment to the United States Air Force Academy. In college, I got to travel all throughout the United States as part of the Western Kentucky University Men’s Basketball team. I’ve been on national television multiple times, once spoke to over seventy thousand people in one weekend, had the honor of preaching a church planting service in Manaus, Brazil where a gang knife fight broke out, and I’ve had my own local day declared in Breckinridge County, Kentucky. As I stated at the start of this paragraph, I’ve been blessed to do some really amazing things! 
 
However, I want you to know that as I’ve grown older, my definition of amazing has changed. I now believe the most beautiful, breath-taking, and amazing things can be witnessed in the most ordinary moments of marriage and family.

Here is what I now determine to be “amazing.”
 

• Amazing is sitting down with a ten-year-old who’s struggling with homework.
• Amazing is hearing a seven-year-old ask their 317th question about a video game or Pokémon.
• Amazing is talking over upcoming schedules while you and your spouse brush your teeth.
• Amazing is looking into the eyes of a man who’s about to die and hearing him say, “I love you.”
• Amazing is hearing the uncontrollable giggles of your children and their friends as they laugh at a shared secret in the backseat.
• Amazing is making love to my wife as we hear the patter of rain and the roar of thunder in the background. 
• Amazing is going in for surgery, holding your wife’s hand, and taking great comfort in knowing that she’s simply there. 

 
I turn forty this year and that has caused me to be reflective. As a pastor, I’ve learned the humbling truth that no one is promised a long, prosperous life. Any one of us could be taken from this earth at any moment. Which is why I’ve been asking God to teach me to number my days. I don’t want to assume I have forever and lose sight of the precious amazing things around me every day. I want to live life with eyes-wide-open so that I am truly able to see the amazing truth that God is good.
 
And, I believe such seeing occurs at home with spouses, children, and extended family/friends. If you’ve lost the ability to see the amazing in the simple things your children do, then unplug from work, turn off your phone, and just watch your kids play. If you haven’t gotten lost in the amazing embrace of your spouse lately, schedule a date night where you and your spouse can simply be together, talk, laugh, confess, and forgive. If you’ve lost the ability to gaze as a family at an amazing sunset or picturesque rainbow, walk outside tonight and watch God work. If you no longer celebrate amazing events around a picnic table, dining table, or kitchen with fixin’s spread all around, clear your calendar, schedule the dinner, and have a celebration. 
 
A long time ago, the Biblical hero Moses wrote, 
 
12 Teach us to number our days, 
that we may gain a heart of wisdom. [1]
 
Ask God to teach you to number your days and may you, may I, may we all have the wisdom to recognize and celebrate the amazing things we see in life, in our marriages, and in our families. 


[1]The New International Version. (2011). (Ps 90:12). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Once upon a time…I recently attended a Disney Institute (DI) Course.  Ironically, for this marriage blog, I was not attending a marital workshop. I was actually taking a class regarding leadership principles. However, could you imagine a Disney Class on marriage?! What would “Disney Magic” look like as a couple strives to live “happily ever after?” Who else could teach families how to love one another than THE entity that caters to families every day? I digress. Disney, if you’re listening, I’ll help you shape, market, and teach such a course!

In order to respect the contents of the amazing DI course, I will not share details. However, after attending, I can say that my heart was stirred to compare my marriage to the magical atmosphere of Disney. I found myself asking this question, "Does our marriage reflect happily ever after or Cruella De Vil?"

On our “happily ever after” days, our marriage would include the following commitments:

• To love each other
• Raise our children to be healthy and influential adults
• Experience deeply passionate romance
• Be an example of Jesus’ love to our community
• Give back to our extended families
• Help and encourage the less fortunate

On our “Cruella De Vil” days, our marriage would display the following:

• To tolerate each other
• Get our kids to the point of high school graduation so we can then exhale and relax
• Stay awake long enough for sex
• Hide from my neighbors so I can have some privacy
• Avoid our extended families
• Help and encourage the less fortunate as long as they look and act like me

In reality, the first list includes my “ideal” purposes for marriage and the second list includes my more “cynical” purposes for marriage. I believe day-to-day reality exists somewhere in-between as we strive to live out the first list. 

As I review these lists, I find myself asking a deeper question, “What do I want the legacy of our marriage to be?” The Disney Institute Course really challenged me to connect purpose to legacy; our focused purposes now are already creating our legacies for the time after we are gone. (Think Yoda from The Last Jedi, "We are what they grow beyond.") The magic of Walt Disney continues to be passed on from generation to generation because his legacy lives on. I desire for the influence of our marriage to do the same; leave a legacy our children and grandchildren can follow. 

What do I want the legacy of our marriage to be?

I want the legacy of our marriage to be that of a couple who intimately loved each other. Intimate love is not “rip-your-clothes-off-love because you cannot wait to be intertwined in passionate bliss.” (Although, I strongly believe healthy intimacy will produce such moments in marriage. And hey, the more the merrier.) Intimate love is a love that is developed over time as a couple learns to listen, see, and trust each other. Intimate love is a love that is safe and encourages emotional, mental, and spiritual vulnerability. Intimate love is an honest love that does not shy away from expressing needs and desires through the words “I need” and “I want.” Intimate love is practicing the words of Ancient Scripture to “forgive as you have been forgiven.” Intimate love is valuing the teamwork necessary to raise children into adults who will be difference makers in the world. Intimate love is praying for one another, praying with one another, and letting each other know that you are constantly praying for them.

I believe that if Tara and I can create such a legacy, the most powerful examples of our legacy will be the ways our daughter (Natalie) and son (Isaac) treat their own spouses and children. The hard and blessed truth about our marriages is that our marriages are not about us. Our marriages are about the people our children become. So, if we do our job as a married couple, our children and great-grandchildren will benefit from our legacy of intimate love. And, prayerfully, such a legacy will lend itself to our children and grandchildren living happily ever after.

What do you and your spouse want the legacy of your marriage to be? I encourage you to take a morning over coffee or even a weekend away to discuss this important question.

(Want to know more about the Disney Institute? Check them out at www.disneyinstitute.com.)
 

Natalie and Isaac, my two peas in a pod,
I am overwhelmed with gratitude when I watch your beauty.
The depth of your expressions, your enthusiastic joy--
They move me to be in awe of God’s creativity.

Your mother is a rock, I married above my grade,
Her strength, focus, and delicate beauty
Move me to love, passion, thanksgiving.
Your mother is a superstar.

God wrote a masterpiece when he brought
Your mother and me together.
We both decided long ago that our dreams
Would not be limited by our heritage.
​
Yet, we are grateful for that heritage,
A heritage full of good cooking, laughter, struggle.
We are better, stronger, more resilient because--
We come from quarry men, quilters, preachers, and teachers.

Natalie and Isaac, my two peas in a pod,
You are part of a much grander story. A story--
That is not your own. You play a lead role everyday,
In God’s story to redeem the world.

So, play your role well. Remember--
You come from quarry men, quilters, preachers, and teachers.
Paint your masterpiece with beauty,
Tell your story with creativity,
​Point to the next world as you bring heaven to earth.

I am convinced the American church has an upside-down understanding of a Biblical church. A large part of the American church culture has bought the lie that a healthy Biblical church=big church and a biblically healthy leader=a strong, put together leader. Those are unbiblical definitions of both church health and Biblical leadership. According to Scripture, a healthy church is a faithful church and a healthy leader is a wounded healer who leads from their brokenness just as much as their strengths. A Biblical leader’s chief call should be the words of St. Paul, “Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”*

I write the words above because I was at the bastion of big church/strong leader from 2005-2008; Willow Creek Community Church. And, after all the heartbreaking and evil news that has recently been revealed about Willow, I’ve had to internally wrestle with a lot of what I learned from that church. My wrestlings have centered around two questions, “Does a healthy church require a strong charismatic leader?” And, “Does a healthy church have to be a big church?” I’ve always held to the answer of “no” for both questions, but after Willow’s recent hard fall, there is a freshness of evaluation in my heart and mind.

Does a healthy church have to be a big church?

Absolutely not. There was a church growth movement in Acts 2 when “about three thousand were added to their number that day.” But, many of the three thousand ended up in house churches that resembled the American church’s definition of Sunday School class or small group. We’ve got to divorce The Church from the idea that bigger is better. God does not call the church to be bigger. God calls the church to abide in him, love its neighbor, care for the poor, serve the immigrant, and ultimately, share the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. 

Does a healthy church require a strong, charismatic leader?

Absolutely not. What makes a church so beautifully powerful is her people. A pastor can only be successful if they see themselves as a fellow saved-broken-sinner who grasps the mantle of leadership reluctantly and humbly. Leading a church is a holy terrifying task. A reluctant leader sees herself or himself no more important than the church nursery worker, groundskeeper, Sunday School teacher, Sunday morning greeter, or weekly tither. May God crush me as a pastor if I ever see myself differently.

Defending Willow Creek and Feeling Duped

I’ve had to defend Willow often over the years from pastors that judged Willow’s theology as “light” or even unbiblical. Sadly, my guess is that a few pastors are quietly celebrating Willow’s downfall. If you are one of those pastors, please don’t. If you are celebrating the log in Willow’s eye, please also see the log in your own eye. As recent failures within many non-denominational churches and the SBC teach us pastoral brethren, all of our churches are susceptible of the same ugly and evil behavior produced at Willow Creek. Don’t create, through your pride, the same type of no accountability culture that Willow created with Bill Hybels. Allow his downfall to shake you to the core, like it has me. Any structure, especially a leadership structure, that gives too much unchecked power to a single leader or group of leaders is setting itself up for a major fall.

I guess one of the reasons I have had to wrestle with my time at Willow is that part of me feels duped. Was I wrong in defending Willow all those years when I heard pastors criticize her? I’ll respond by saying this: the power of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is bigger than Bill Hybels’ ability to lead, it’s bigger than his pride, and it’s definitely bigger than his ugly sin. The salvations that happened at Willow for thousands of people were due to God, not Bill Hybels. Those salvation experiences are still true and eternal. God has, and I believe, will continue to work at Willow Creek. But, it won’t be through a charismatic leader that leads Willow to large growth. It will be through reluctant leader-pastors who hold to Biblical teachings on church growth and leadership.

When we are tempted to embrace a pastor or church due to charisma or style, or even worse, when we embrace ourselves as pastors who lead big churches with charisma or style, may we immediately repent and realize that our true shepherd is a slain lion-lamb who led through sacrifice. Let that slain lion-lamb be our symbol for what a healthy church looks like. Allow that slain lion-lamb to set the bar for what type of pastor we desire to follow or be.  

*See Dan Allender's, "Leading with a Limp" or Henri Nouwen's "The Wounded Healer" for more insight on being chief sinner and leading as a wounded healer.

Whether I work with pre-marital couples or couples that have been together for thirty years, I often see one constant challenge when it comes to relationship struggles: communication. I once thought that communication was important so that couples could discuss budgets, dreams, parenting, and sex. Yet, the more I provide counseling and coaching, the more I begin to realize that there is a deeper purpose to communication; a purpose that lends itself to better budgets, realized dreams, shared parenting, and healthy sex lives. The purpose of communication is intimacy. 

Song of Songs 4:16 provides a powerful picture of sexual intimacy:

Awake, north wind,
    and come, south wind!
Blow on my garden,
    that its fragrance may spread everywhere.
Let my beloved come into his garden
    and taste its choice fruits.

Three times in this passage, through the use of the verbs, “come” (twice) and “blow,” the bride indicates that she feels safe and attached enough to her groom to invite him into her most intimate of spaces. Such an invitation only occurred in Song of Songs after the couple had spent time displaying mutual commitment which led to the establishment of trust. A feeling of trust helped the bride know that it was safe enough to be very physically vulnerable and intimate with her groom. 

Intimate communication develops in much the same way.

If couples are going to communicate in healthy ways, they must first work to show one another a Biblically covenanted type of commitment. Such commitment can only be developed over time. 
Spending time together as a couple helps build trust. Time is the currency that is used by couples to display to each other that they are truly committed. The more a significant other sees that their engaged partner or spouse is committed to getting to know and invest in them, the more likely they are to trust their engaged partner or spouse.

Trust allows a person to feel safe in a relationship. Just like the bride in Song of Songs felt safe enough to invite her groom into sexual intimacy, an engaged or married significant other who feels safe will invite their future husband, future wife, husband, or wife into emotional intimacy. Emotional intimacy occurs when two people feel safe enough to share vulnerable communication with each other. 

To summarize, commitment produces trust. Trust testifies to an environment of relational safety. A safe environment encourages vulnerable communication. And, vulnerable communication produces emotional intimacy. 

If you are struggling to communicate in your pre-marital or marital relationship, I encourage you to ask:

-At what point of the communication process are we struggling? 
-Are we displaying enough commitment to one another? 
-Do we trust and feel safe with each other? 
-Are we carving out time to communicate? 

One More Challenge

A spouse or significant other that grew up in an unsafe home will most likely have a difficult time recognizing and therefore sharing within a safe relational environment. If you find yourself wanting to be more emotionally intimate with your spouse, but feel as if he or she is constantly putting up walls, please know that he or she is probably practicing the same connection style they developed as a child or adolescent. That means your spouse probably needs help learning how to recognize a relationally safe environment and how to communicate within such an environment. How should you engage such a spouse/significant other?

Your role as a partner or spouse is to help your spouse or partner see that he or she might need help by communicating YOUR desires to connect and attach more. Don’t say, “You need help!” Say, “I really wish we could be more emotionally vulnerable with each other. What do you think is keeping this from happening?”

Be patient. If your spouse/significant other did come from a home that was unsafe, it will take some time for them to understand and communicate within a safe environment. Love them with the same patience and grace with which God loves us.

Pray. Pray that the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead can resurrect or develop the ability to communicate intimately within your marriage or soon-to-be marriage.
​
Keep working on yourself. How can you continue to show your spouse that you are committed to providing a safe environment for them to vulnerably communicate? 

I recently sat down to pen this poem in order to reflect and heal after a very challenging season in ministry. 

Were you there when I walked the lonely hallway,
Having just helped a family say goodbye?
Were you there when I held a dying woman’s hand,
Hearing “I love you,” a family member cry?
 
I walk this lonely hallway with a heavy, grieving heart.
The hallway’s emptiness matches my soul,
I’m carrying a weight within so heavy,
My heart is paralyzed, my body feels old.
 
I know I will have to carry this family,
Through the tears that will honor their mother.
A great celebration of life,
Yet a wonder, "Why Mom and not another?"
 
Yet, I turn the corner to this hallway,
For tomorrow is another day.
People to see, sermons to write,
Who knows what the next church member might say?
 
So, keep going I must,
Though my soul feels both empty and full,
Heavy heart, grateful heart, Lord I know you’re good,
But life can feel so cruel. 

​By: Paul Gibson