I’m meant to be working on another draft of this second blog in the “What Do You Believe About Singleness” series, but instead I am distracted, scrolling through all my friends’ Mother’s Day photos on Instagram. In my family, over the past 3 years since we’ve had the little ones around, we celebrate mums, grandmas, and aunts. Pretty much all the women who love the littles, and the not-so-little-anymores. And this means the world to me. As a woman who very likely will never have or raise kids of her own, being part of the team that raises my nephews and niece, my godson and goddaughter, my friends’ children, and my students is incredibly special to me. So here’s to 
all the mums and all the other women who raise up kids in this world, who teach them to love God and love each other, and hopefully to love reading and bugs and bubbles and space and fake tattoos and adventures while they’re at it.
I’m also texting (and praying for and weeping for) my friend whose mother is currently in hospital dying, at a loss for the right words as there are no words that can make death right. So here’s to everyone who has lost their mothers, or never had them in the first place – may God grant you strong women to hold you up when you are broken, to laugh with you until you cry, and to remind you just how loved you are by God.
You see, my first point in looking at singleness based on the theological view presented in my last blog is that we need to choose not to just bide our time as singles until we’re married. We need to use our time well. And, in this season of my life, being part of this semi-connected family currently celebrating or grieving their mothers is my world. Father’s Day will come soon enough, and I’ll be among the mourners, and I will need my brothers, and brother-in-law, and best friends, and pastors, and other guy friends to remind me to carry on as much as I need to celebrate the women in my life today. That’s how this works, this living in community thing. We get through it together, the good, the bad, and the ugly. So singles, if you haven’t surrounded yourself in a community like this yet, it’s time to build one.
You see, singleness is not the waiting room for life, for growing up, for being wandering lone wolves; it IS life. It’s neither a time to sit back and think, “someday, when I’m married, then I’ll . . .” or “when I have a family, th
en I could . . .” James 4:14 warns us “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” My sister discovered a giant dead moth in my niece’s fairy garden this afternoon. What a juxtaposition of life, this gorgeous creature that lives for such a short time, next to the beautiful imaginary world of my 3 year old little love! And we were reminded, this, right now, is the life God has given us on earth. How are you going to use yours?
Single people are some of the busiest I know. Or maybe that’s just because I spent the last decade in Los Angeles, where singles lead rather hectic urban lives. We work, and we work hard, often putting in more hours than our married-with-kids counterparts. You won’t see most of us calling in sick because we have to stay home with a sick child, or leaving work early because we must carpool with our spouse when the other car’s in the shop. The single childless professional doesn’t need to rush off to pick the kids up from school or take a long lunch to get them to the dentist. We just work long hours. We rarely take time off. We tend to come in even when we’re sick rather than use sick time. Yet, like our married counterparts, we still need family time. Our family time may look a bit different, more like basketball every Thursday evening with the guys, Happy Hour Wednesday after work with the girls, hours babysitting the niece and nephew, watching MST3K with the besties, or Skype dates with the parents, but it is still family time for us. It is still necessary for a full, God-glorifying, sustainable life.
It is easy for us to get caught up in the day to day plans, the minutia of life as it is in this moment, but we can’t keep waiting for big life events to change how we are living. We need to stop and take stock of our lives frequently. We need to pause and figure out what our goals are for this season instead of waiting for another one before we fulfill them. We need to spend time in scripture and in prayer to reassess what our goals should even be. And, we need to be willing to make some big moves, deep commitments now, not in some far off tomorrow.
One of the coolest things about singleness is often being a bit more open to what God has for us. While we should still seek wise counsel and make careful decisions, ultimately the choice of what we do with our lives rests on our shoulders, not someone else’s. Are you using this freedom? Or are you wasting your time?
Here are some questions to ask yourself about your current season in life:
- How can I be part of a family with people I can care for who will care for me?
- How can I be lifting up God’s name at work, with friends, with family?
- How can I not just be busy, but use my time wisely, including rest?
- How can I be involved in a ministry for which God has suited me?
- How can I better love the people in my life? In my city?
- How can I develop gifts God has given me into skills?
- How can I ENJOY God today?
The Westminster Shorter Catechism is a favorite of mine, beginning with:
Question 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
So what are you doing today to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever? What are you doing to help others do the same? Don’t just bide your time, thinking one day in the future I’ll rethink my life, because it’s not just the Steve Miller Band who think “time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future.” Let us live our lives today in a way that we, like Christ, can say to our Father in heaven “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4).