You are Not Overlooked

Yesterday's sermon was just what I needed to hear.

The preacher (as I've taken to calling anyone who is not a Catholic priest...) went on for forty-five minutes about 1 Corinithians 7, which is a chapter about...SEX. Essentially, it's a chapter about how folks who aren't married shouldn't have sex but that folks who are SHOULD.

Other than the hilarity of having a preacher tell a congregation that they need to have sex, the sermon actually offered a great deal of insight into the...uhm...plight of the single person.

The preacher is over forty, unmarried and looking. He's not skeezy, he just turned his life around at thirty and hasn't found the right woman. But he is just a bit bitter, and he had some words of encouragement for other singles (single, here, embracing everyone who is unmarried, even if in a couple relationship). What he said that most resonated with me was, "You have not been overlooked. God has not forgotten you. If you are unmarried now, it doesn't mean that you will be unmarried forever.

I've gotten a bit emotional when getting caught in the trap of feeling sorry for myself because people all around me are getting married, people I used to babysit are getting married. There is no limit to the trap. If I get started thinking about the unfairness of my own personal plan for my life not quite working out the way I saw it, the only way out is to force myself out.

I've heard my mother say it, but I've also heard my mother wonder aloud why I hadn't yet met the right guy.

I've heard my friends say it, but I've also had them describe some fairly unattractive guys (meaning quality-wise, more than looks wise) to me in the hopes that I would just get a boyfriend already.

To hear a preacher say it, and to hear him say it after last weekend's conversation with WG, well, it was just what I needed.

I have not been overlooked.

Being unmarried right now is what I need to be, for the betterment of God's plan for my life...and let's face it, God's the one whose plan is going to win out in a battle between His plan and mine.

I have not been overlooked.

You have not been overlooked.

We have not been overlooked.