This weekend, I’ve had the opportunity to contemplate my singleness.

Anna at Hope Road wrote out much of what I was thinking in her post on noticing the single moments.

I’ve had a lot of friends courting, getting engaged, getting married. And then there is me; all alone here in the middle of nowhere. I struggle with this often; I definitely want to be able to go out and romance a girl. I want to  get married so bad it hurts. But so far, God hasn’t opened that door. And I’m definitely not going there until God tells me to.

Certainly, there are advantages to being married. For starters, the food would be better. Right now, I’m eating my first meal of the day—tuna (still in the can, mixed with Mayo and seasoning) and a freezer pizza. Deeper down, I know it is not good for man to be alone. God designed me to be completed (and to complete) some amazing girl out there somewhere. I want to do that. I want to rejoice in God with somebody; to share my deepest secrets and to live out my life with her. And I am confident that this will come in time. God is faithful; he will lead me that way when the time is right.

Meanwhile, there are a lot blessings to being single. “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided.” (1 Corinthians 7:32-34) Right now, I can devote my energies to serving the Lord in a way that will be quite impossible once I’m married. Almost a year ago, I was sitting in Col. Tanner’s office here at ALERT discussing my future. Col. urged me to spend as much time in ministry as I could while I was still single. He pointed out that once I’m married, I will no longer be able to give as much of myself. I really saw the truth of that the last couple weeks. In the past two weeks I’ve put in over 170 hours here at ALERT. I could not do that if I was married. Last summer, I put in over 700 hours in six weeks. If I was married, that would never have happened. Being single, I can serve the Lord in ways I never could if I was married.

And so that is one of the many blessings of being single. I can truly devote myself to the things of the Lord in a way simply not possible for a married man. When I think about it, I’m glad to be single—I’m right where my Lord wants me.