Love and Marriage

Last night Jesse and I taught the first pre-married class at our church, Mars Hill Bellevue. There were four couples and us. I loved seeing the joy and excitement in their eyes as they told us their engagement stories. They are all in love...now. But what about in 5 years? Or 50?

Next month is my 10th wedding anniversary. I have loved the same man since 1996 and plan to for the rest of my life. As I thought back to when we met and fell in love and got married and got...life, I realized I wanted to share a glimpse of our story too-little snapshots to remember that time. What a mystery! How can two people go from complete strangers to one flesh apart from God?


1996
Once upon a time in a land far, far away (called Bible College), I met my prince charming. I was carrying my roommate who had hurt her ankle tripping over something in our room and yelling for someone to help us. But it was past curfew and no one was around. I was trying to take her to the main building to see if a medic was on campus but she was getting heavy. Suddenly, a figure appeared out of the shadows. He was over 6 feet tall, wearing a beanie and eating pistachios from a huge Costco bag. His shirt said SECURITY and he had a walkie talkie on his pocket. "Hey, security boy! Come help", I yelled. He came over and I realized he was by far the cutest guy I'd seen so far this semester. Well, actually, ever. But I didn't want HIM to know that. So, I thought I'd play it cool and make fun of his bag of pistachios. Undaunted, he shrugged and offered me some. I don't remember anything else about my roommate or her ankle. I hope we got her some help....

The next few weeks were agonizing. Did I like him? Did he like me? Was this God's will for my life or was I supposed to do something harder-like go to Africa and live with orphans? I was so confused. I sat in my dorm room one Saturday afternoon pouring my heart out to God in anguish. This boy was distracting me! "Please take away these feelings!", I cried. And then I wondered, what if God WANTED me to feel this way? "OK, if you WANT me to like him, make him come to my room and invite me to a church service right now, tonight!", I prayed-knowing full well that unless you're Jewish there is never church on a Saturday night. Satisfied that God would remove these pesky feelings for a boy, I sat up and started reading but was quickly interrupted by a knock on my dorm room door....It was Jesse, inviting me to church, right now, tonight, at a new church about a half hour away. "Would I go?", he asked. "WHAAAAT?!?!?!?!", I screamed. Silently.
Out loud, I said, "Sure!" and grabbed my Bible.

The next few weeks were even worse. I couldn't tell for sure if he liked me. It was horrible and wonderful all at the same time. Finally, his birthday rolled around. I wanted to get him a gift that said I cared-but not too much. Just in case. I decided on a package of Nutter Butter cookies.

By Christmas, we still were not officially going out but I officially had everyone on campus asking me if we were. Over Christmas break he asked me to come to a New Year's Party with him. I did.

After that we were officially a couple.
But now I'm into 1997....