When you get sick, you don’t have a choice, that’s life and it can be pretty miserable! When you are single you do have choices. At one time or another, it’s easy for most singles to fall into the trap that their singleness is a sickness and not just a season of life, or part of their lives.
Several years ago I went through an extended time of unexplainable illness. It changed my life, and in many ways my life was put on hold as all of my time and energy was devoted to surviving. In those dark days the sickness was so consuming it threaten to become my identity. I wasn’t sickness, but when my world revolved around focusing on the sickness (or trying to prevent it!) It seemed that all that was left to “me” as a person was scars and diet regulations – the very reminders of the illness.
Singleness can be that way too if we let it. When we focus on what we don’t have, on what other’s have, how awkward it can be to be the third wheel… it’s easy to start thinking of singleness as a dreaded sickness.
While singleness may be unwanted at times (or all the time depending on the season!) we are not sick.
Singleness is not our identity.
It may describe us, but it does not define us.
You are more than ‘single’.
You are chosen by God.
His Child.
Given a new identity.
Given a purpose and reason for living that goes beyond relationships.
You are loved with a love that is stronger than death, and His love for you is more jealous than the grave (Songs 8:6).
Nothing quenches that love.
His love for you is not dependent on your relational status and does not change when your relational status changes.
His love covers all sickness.
Even yours. Even mine.
Jesus did not come for the healthy, but for the sick. (Luke 5:29-32) If you are struggling in your singleness today, don’t condemn yourself. Christ enters into our pain and weakness! Did He not feel lonely at times? Yes. But He did not allow it to become His identity. The Father wants nothing more than to be invited into our sickness and pain. It’s there that He can heal. He can’t heal when we hide behind the mask of “fine”.
The Father’s heart for you is to know that He doesn’t look at your singleness as a sickness; but rather as a gift He’s given, to show us that our value and purpose go beyond relational status.
“You’re not sick – you’re single” – Sarah in the movie Hitch
Being fully alive today is recognizing that your value does not come from a relational status. Even my married friends have shared with me, that this is a lesson that they have had to learn too. “You’re Not Sick, You’re Single” is apart of the “Today’s the Day: Being Single and Fully Alive Series. For more in this series please click here.
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October 3, 2014 at 2:12 am
Thank you for this series, Katie. It is really encouraging me. I love the little nuggets of truth you are sharing–keep up the good work!
October 4, 2014 at 12:17 am
Thank you Esther! Your encouragement blesses me
October 3, 2014 at 4:42 pm
This is such a great post! I’ve struggled with a lot of health issues too, dietary especially. But even though I’ve felt the way that threatens to become my identity, I’d never drawn this parallel. In fact I think in my heart I tend to believe the lie that singleness defines me much more than that my sickness does. Great food for thought. Thanks!
October 3, 2014 at 10:12 pm
Thank you! And sorry to hear about the health problems 😦 . I’m always amazed at how easy it seems to be for me to believe lies about my identity. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a pun or not but I really appreciated that you used “food for thought” when we’ve been talking about dietary things!
October 3, 2014 at 10:34 pm
lol I didn’t even notice it but it’s perfect! Also I’m doing a Write 31 about dietary things so it’s even more perfect!
October 4, 2014 at 10:51 am
Yay! What is the link to your posts?
October 3, 2014 at 6:41 pm
That is literally my favorite line in the whole movie. So often we try to find the “cure” or cause of our singleness. Instead of learning to live a full life in it.
October 3, 2014 at 10:08 pm
Haha mine too! 🙂 Isn’t that the same movie where it talks about needing to take a sign off your forehead? 😉
October 5, 2014 at 4:00 pm
I have fibromyalgia which is made worse by many foods and spices. Sometimes I do feel defined by my illnesses but I know I am more than that too. When I was single, I was lonely. When married, there are struggles of learning to live and love together with the Lord that can take years of work. I do know one thing; at the right time God will lead you to a partner when you least expect it!