Investments
Have you made any investments that have worked out for you lately? No, I’m not talking about the stock or bond market, I’m interested in your personal investments—your investments in people.
For the past year, I’ve collected news items for a lecture I give at the Seminary in a Pastoral Ministries class on weddings. It seems that society’s views of weddings and marriages are changing. In France and in the United States, there is a debate about whether homosexual couples can enter into “holy matrimony.” When I lived in California, I was asked to perform a ceremony for two lesbians. Unbelievable, isn’t it?
One of my favorite news stories came out of St. Paul, MN. David Weinlick was tired of his friends asking him when he was going to tie the knot, so he set a date and asked them to choose his bride for him. Twenty-five women showed up for the “cattle call” and the committee chose Elizabeth Runze to be his “lawfully wedded wife.”
Recently, a man in Sicily surprised the preacher, his bride to be and everyone else with the answer “I don’t” to the question, “Will you have this woman …” The night before, he discovered her in an embrace with a member of the wedding party and wasn’t about to enter into a relationship of fidelity with a women who was cheating on him. Though he didn’t want to get married, he didn’t want to ruin the wedding, so he invited all the guests to continue with the reception and have a good time.
In New York this past spring, Louis Delig stabbed his new wife to death during the post-wedding party because he suspected her of cheating with a friend. Apparently, he misunderstood the meaning of the words “ ‘til death do we part.”
Meaningful relationships give life substance. Whether it is marriage or friendship, we all need relationships. How’s your people portfolio?
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
Comments