Wedding Day

In regards to marriage, Mark Driscoll (yes, I just referenced him for the thousandth time on this blog!) talked once about how as little girls, a lot of us spend years planning our wedding day. We buy bridal magazines at young ages, dreaming of the princess gowns, fantasizing over princess cut vs. round diamond fashions, practicing the isle walk/the kiss even, the dance, and go back and forth over the years from beach/outdoor/church/ setting for the big event.
His challenge was "How many of you girls spent all those years planning your marriage vs. planning the 'event'?"
That maybe the "Big Event" isn't the day but it's every day after?

The actually "Ceremony" is only 30 minutes on average versus the actual marriage being 30+ years...
So though the ceremony is significant, in comparison to the marriage, it pales in comparison!

This further parallels to the whole Kingdom Perspective that's gripped me this past year...
How much time/money/effort I spend on a daily basis fixing up my:
1.House
2. Body
3. Image
4. Clothes/Appearance
5. Possessions
6.
7.
8.

There's more blanks to fill in of things you might think of and things I know exist but don't currently spin off my mind...
You get it?

Then I stumbled on this passage a few weeks ago. PLEASE read it b/c it's so rich! It's the message version (which I don't use that much, but I liked the picture it gave):

2 Corinthians 5
1-5For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we'll never have to relocate our "tents" again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it! We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.
6-8That's why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.


9-10But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that's what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we'll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what's coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.


11-14That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It's no light thing to know that we'll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That's why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. God alone knows how well we do this, but I hope you realize how much and deeply we care. We're not saying this to make ourselves look good to you. We just thought it would make you feel good, proud even, that we're on your side and not just nice to your face as so many people are. If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.

AMAZING.
Do y'all fall into the comparison/envy trap? I do. Facebook and blogging tend to have a way of igniting this sometimes!!!! (Dang you social networking).

But in these verses, it talks about how everything earthly is merely shacks...SHACKS, people!
Some may try and make those shacks not look like it, but THEY STILL ARE. Our homes are, our bodies are, our possessions are...everything is dirty trash compared to our "spacious living" lifestyles we'll receive in glory someday (sooner than later, mind you!).

As Jason often says about how his basketball team doesn't take showers after games but just spray Axe on themselves (gross, I know) - "If you put sugar on a turd, it's not gonna make it taste any better!!"

So is true for how we use of time/money/efforts on all things earthly. At the end of the day (THE day), it will all be a pile of rubble compared to our eternal dwellings...no matter how much money and time we spent trying to make it look nice!

I just LOVE this. It means I don't have to compare...that envy and trying to impress with what I have and how I look is just irrelevant. What freedom then to do more for reaching the Lost.

I struggle...sometimes on a daily basis to recognize that "little piece of Heaven"...that glimpse of what's to come...forever present in my heart. But that glimpse is so powerful and I pray that it becomes more and more relevant in my own life.

Because it's the marriage...not the day - that I really do desire.