Singled In

Let me start by saying that I have absolutely nothing against marriage, and I do not think poorly of people who are married. Everyone is different with different desires and different purposes for their lives. Now, on with the show.

I listen to Christian radio on my way to work every day. The station I usually listen to is called Way FM, at least here in Colorado. In the morning, when I am usually listening, there is a talk show interspersed between songs, called Mornings with Brant. There are three people on the talk show who participate regularly in the conversations. Their names are Brant, obviously, Pablo, and Nikki. Brant and Pablo are married, and Nikki is single, which is the point that I am getting to if you’ll just be a little more patient.

One morning several months ago, I heard them discussing marriage, or more accurately, people who are not or do not get married. I would guess that Nikki is in her mid-twenties, which may as well be ancient for a Christian woman who is still single (at least according to most Christians). I turned on the radio in the middle of the conversation, so I didn’t catch how they got to talking about this topic, but they were basically discussing the fact that many people think there is something wrong with people who never get married. It seemed like Nikki was upset by something she had read or heard from someone about older single people. Brant and Pablo referenced the verse in I Corinthians 7:8-9 where Paul talks about people who don’t get married, and they used this to justify the fact that there is nothing wrong with remaining single. I was a bit annoyed by this because the verse does not say that there is nothing wrong with staying single. It actually says that there is nothing wrong with getting married, but that it is better to stay single. Paul clearly states that there are two paths people can choose in life, to get married or to stay single, and he clearly states that the higher (better) path is to stay single. He says that if you cannot control your urges, then it is perfectly fine to get married, but the better path is to stay single. So, the verse that Brant and Pablo used to justify single people should actually be used to justify married people. Just before I arrived at work and turned off the radio, I heard Nikki say that she would be perfectly fine if she never got married. I thought that was really cool because for most of the women (and especially the Christian women) that I’ve met, their highest priority seems to be getting married.

Well, I guess that I’ve ranted on long enough on this subject, but just wanted to get the word out on this or my opinion anyway.

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Haitian Training, Part 1

No, it’s not training to become Haitian. It’s training to prepare for the trip to Haiti. We have three 4-hour sessions lined up to get to know each other and to learn more about missions and Haiti. At the meeting this afternoon, we discussed the purpose of missions trips, we came up with a slogan for our team, we learned a little bit about cultural differences, and we finished by learning to speak a little Haitian Creole. The slogan we came up with is “Go”, as in don’t just sit around waiting for something to happen, go make something happen. I think it’s a bit simple, but it works. I thought something like “Building bridges” would be a bit better because we are going on a construction project, but we are also going there to build bridges across cultures and spiritual boundaries. As for what we learned about cultural differences, it was focused mostly on realizing that even though we are going there to build a school or church, the real reason we are going is to reach out to the people and make a difference in their lives. Learning Haitian Creole was interesting. It sounds a lot like French, but it is spelled quite differently. Kouma ou ye (pronounced koo-mah oo yay) means “how are you”. Mwe rele Nick (pronounced mway ray-lay Nick) means “my name is Nick”. Those are probably two of the most useful phrases that we learned. Also, Bonjou (pronounced bohn-joo) means “good morning”. Apparently in Haiti, if you don’t say bonjou to someone you pass on the street, they will think you are very rude.

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