I don’t know if you are a Swiftie or not?
Taylor Swift’s latest album – The Tortured Poets Department – has been described by some as capturing the feeling or phenomenon of ‘modern dating despair’. Relationship break up is and always has been a source of great sadness, but the lack of commitment which is now so prevalent in our society only increases the pain and the possibility that we might never find the long term security and stability that every human being longs for.
In track 12, she sings among other lyrics:
Talkin’ rings and talkin’ cradles
I wish I could un-recall
How we almost had it all…
For young women like Taylor, now aged 34 years, these problems are only too real. She reminds us that the ring never reaches her finger and the possibility of starting and raising a family is receding. Many young women are identifying with this soundtrack.
But it doesn’t have to be like this and it is not how God intended it to be.
God designed faithful marriage as the ‘till death us do part’ relationship in which a man and a woman can find total security based on their love for each other and their promises to become ‘one flesh’ (Genesis 2:24) in every way, including sexually. Sadly, the sexual revolution has changed everything and continues to lie to our young people. We have been told that we don’t have to wait for marriage to experience sexual intimacy and that whatever we enjoy we can have ‘now’. But it doesn’t work like that and sex before marriage, especially with a number of partners, actually makes long term commitment more unlikely.
If we ignore God’s way, we can chase all sorts of things to satisfy our souls but keep ending up empty handed. People live in hope that the experiences of tomorrow will bring the joy they lack today. But it is only when we have found all we need in knowing God and following His ways that we will be able to live without anxiety or regret.
Jesus brought this message to a woman in Samaria 2000 years ago. He knew everything she had ever done and brought her forgiveness for the past and hope for the future, read her story in John 4: 1-29. He can do the same for you.
