by Johnny Kim
With the start of this Fall season, I have the privilege of serving as the elder overseeing the Single Life ministry. Having been on the Single Life ministry staff years ago when I myself was single, I am excited to return to serving Single Life, this time joined by a ministry partner (my wife!). As I think about my own past experiences as a single adult and all the lessons learned that I could possibly share, one lesson about being single sticks out in particular because it seems I learned it only after getting married. Before I go any further (and before I risk getting into trouble with my aforementioned ministry partner), I can’t help but to say that I absolutely love my wife and being married in general. Though I would not trade marriage for any other life stage here on Earth, the one thing that marriage made me finally realize about singleness was just how precious singleness is.
Allow me to explain.
It just so happens that it’s the same lesson that the Apostle Paul was trying to teach the church at Corinth throughout 1 Corinthians 7. Throughout the chapter, we can see that Paul extols the virtues of being single as opposed to being married. Paul presents the simple and plain truth that, compared to their married counterparts, those who are single face less hindrances and concerns in the way of offering complete and undistracted devotion to the Lord. Opportunities for greater devotion to the Lord are definitely precious and no Christian, single or married, can deny that.
And yet, as single adults, we (I am also speaking for myself when I was single) can sometimes fail to see the preciousness of the single stage of life. We fail to see that our freedom as singles grants us a whole host of opportunities to serve Christ and His church; opportunities that would surely be harder to come by if we were married. Rather than celebrating singleness as a special stage of life, we can be prone to treating singleness as if it were an unnatural state. Some might even reduce this special stage to nothing more than a sort of waiting room in life where we sit around simply waiting for bigger and better things to come our way. Under the weight of those kinds of attitudes, devotion to the Lord is replaced by discontentment with our life and discontent singles then quickly grow tired of being single.
On the contrary, throughout 1 Corinthians 7, Paul paints a picture of singleness where the single person is not tired of being single, but more likely tired from being single. It’s the picture of a single person who without a wife or husband to be concerned about, is free to work wholeheartedly for God and His kingdom purposes. Without the various needs of a spouse vying for their time and attention, they are free then to devote all of their time and attention (and at all hours of the day) in service to God. The single person can completely tire themselves out in total devotion to the Lord without worrying that they will have nothing left of themselves to give to a waiting spouse at home.
Marriage is definitely a blessing from God as is singleness according to Paul. It is my desire that Single Life would be a ministry full of tired singles; singles who are absolutely tired and spent from being wholeheartedly devoted to serving God while in the single stage of life. In a society that offers singles plenty of other reasons to be tired, including the pursuit of career advancement, higher education, travels around the world, hobbies and the like, it is my hope that the Single Life ministry can be characterized by singles who are completely tired for the sake of Christ.
Singles, are you tired of being single or are you tired from being single?