...one has this gift, another has that.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, Grant recently got married. His marriage pretty much made me the last single guy of the close friends I regularly hang out with. Now hear me out: I am happily single. I am single by choice. By this, I mean not married. This just happens to be where I am in life right now, and I am satisfied with that for the moment (although, having a girlfriend would be nice). I recently read in 1 Corinthians 7 that singleness and marriage are both gifts. Paul goes so far as to say that being single is better than being married because the need to commit so much of oneself to another person does not exist in singleness.

I live by myself, so I get to make all the decisions for what goes on in my home. If I want to watch UFC, nobody can tell me otherwise. If I want to get up early to write down thoughts or work on a paper, no one can tell me to be quiet. If I want to buy a plasma TV, no one can tell me to not get one too big (except the price tag--geez!). I make a very good bachelor. While all of these are fairly normal luxuries of being single, I do question how much more of myself I could give to the Lord. If singleness is a gift, I have 2 choices: to take advantage of it, or to squander it.

If I use this time in my life to encourage other singles by example to find their worth in Christ instead of a significant other, then I am using this gift for good. If I use the freedom of my current status to invest time in my community of friends and believers, then I am using this gift for good. If I use this time to freely give of my money (as I currently don't have to ask anyone's permission as to how I should spend each paycheck) to my church or to needs of others that come about, I am using this gift for good. If I use this time to be more concerned with being the right person as opposed to finding the right person, I am using this gift for good.

Its easy to get down about not being able to relate to all my married friends. To go from having everything in common to having very different lives is a hard pill to swallow. Nonetheless, I realize that I've been given a gift. And this gift is one I do not want to waste.