Of Soul Mates and Second Thoughts

There is one person out there for you. The lovely concept of a soul mate. That thing that makes movies like Serendipity, Jerry Maguire, and While You Were Sleeping our favorites. But do those movie scenes translate to real life?

I feel most people think they there is indeed someone especially for them out there. When a couple get engaged, we all sigh and moon over how great it is that they’ve found each other. When couples break up, we shrug our shoulders and say maybe that guy/girl wasn’t the one for you. I’m as guilty as the next person of believing that God has created a man out there for me and that He has hand-picked me for someone out there too.

"Come to think of it, I’d be truly lucky to find The One. What is the updated ratio? 6 to 1? Six Christian women to one Christian guy?"

Sarcasm aside, is there really just one person hand-picked by God for us to fall in love with, marry and grow old with?

I’m in the book of Hosea right now and God certainly didn’t tell Hosea to go buy Gomer and make her his wife. The instructions were simple. Find a prostitute and take her in marriage. David? Well, David had a couple of wives and the Solomon had hundreds. True loves all? Unlikely.

Did Boaz know Ruth was The One? Did Ruth go seduce Boaz because she knew he was The One? I think she did that out of a need.

Adam and Eve seem like the closest thing to soul mates because, well, it’s not like there were “choices” and God did make Eve because Adam needed a company, among other things.

Elizabeth Elliot has been married three times and as far as I can tell, she’s pretty happy. I have Aunties and Uncles who have been widowed and then remarried. In fact, I am a product of marriage the second time around. Not my parents, although theirs is an interesting story of break ups and make ups. I mean my grandparents. My grandparents were widows when they met and you know how the rest of the story goes.

And then there are divorces and break-ups and people who fall in love as often as they eat out.

There was a question asked during the Pre-Valentines Treat: “Can you fall in love with someone who is not your God’s will?” One of the men answered: “Yeah, you can. If you’re that stubborn and you really refuse to listen to God.”

Perhaps there is more than one person out there a person could marry. The thing is, a marriage will work, a relationship will work, if God is part of it. I think marriage works when God’s guidelines are followed and when people stick to the commitments they have made. I've never been married so take my thought with a good sprinkling of discernment. But I've been around a couple who have shown me the truth about the latter part of my statement above. My parents are great examples of keepers of marriage vows, having stuck to them through thick and thin for 22 years already.

The concept of a soul mate… I don’t know, I’m having second thoughts.

What are your thoughts?