When you know you're loved

It's wedding season! I think I've lost count of how many weddings I've been for in the last two months, and I still have a couple more coming up in the month ahead!

I was at a wedding today at which my former youth church pastor was speaking. She said to the women in the crowd: "Wives, it is easy to submit in everything to your husbands when you know you are his everything."

When she said those words, it hit me how a wedding is such a beautiful picture of God's relationship with His church.

It's taken me long, winding journeys running away from church and religion and all the issues I had with it, to finally coming full circle. To a place where God, and church, is the highlight of my week, and the source of my strength and joy.

I realised that those words could be applied to our relationship with God. It's easy to submit to the circumstances He has placed you in when your perspective is that wherever He has you, He has you there for a reason, and it's a pretty darn good one. It's easy to trust that the job He's placed you in, the family He's placed you in, the season He's allowed you to be in, is meant for your good. When you know, not just in your head, but in your heart, that you are cherished, and loved... man. Nothing anyone says about you can take that away from you. Even the worst day can't get you down.

Sure, life is not problem-free or stress-free. Sometimes there are more questions than answers. Sometimes the circumstances you are in can feel totally complicated. But even in the beautiful mess of life, submitting, trusting, believing... can be easy, when you know you are loved. 

I don't know about you, but when people tell me that I seem to be enjoying life or my job a lot, I know that's not because I have the greatest life or job on earth (although in my mind, I do!), but because I know I'm loved, and that changes my reactions, my attitude, and my feelings towards everything that comes my way.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." // Jeremiah 29:11