Last summer, I met my future fiancée through a rather serendipitous event involving the DFW airport, Instagram, a delayed flight, a friend’s wedding and Ultimate Frisbee. (It was something out of a Rom-Com, no joke.) As we started dating, we had a huge challenge to overcome: Abby, my fiancée, lives in Cincinnati, and I live in Chicago.
Long-distance dating and engagement has not been easy, but it has been good. There are obvious drawbacks to distance: I can’t see her in-person whenever I want, I miss out on social events with her, and I can’t give her a hug when she’s sad.
But there are also blessings.
Abby and I spend most of our time “together” not in-person but on the phone or video chatting. (God bless FaceTime!) Because of the distance, verbal communication has become a major pillar in our relationship. But casual conversation only goes so far, and it wasn’t long before we were talking about deeper things. We have had serious conversations about God, faith, hopes, dreams, fears, sins – everything is fair game. We have laughed a lot, cried a little, dreamed, explored… we are setting the bedrock for our marriage.
In some ways, our relationship has become wonderfully analogous for how we relate with God. A relationship can only thrive when there is honest, consistent, unforced, unrushed communication. If I only spoke to Abby when I saw her in person, our relationship would die – it’s just not frequent enough. The only way we can expect to be close to God is by speaking to Him frequently and openly! Distance creates longing, a longing that eventually will be fulfilled. Until then, we talk – openly and honestly.
Resources:
- Tim Keller recently spoke at Google about his book The Meaning of Marriage. Here is a link to his talk.
- For some tips on praying through a Psalm, check out this post.
