The Next Chapter

*Guest post by C.R.

Writing is not my strength, but I’ll still share about the next chapter in our love story. I want to start by saying that I am honored to have been used by God to help teach Denise about God’s love, grace, and redemption. All glory and credit go to Him.

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In the months following our first date, Denise and I got caught up in high school love. We spent all of our free time together. Since I’d had little experience dating girls, I was in awe that such a beautiful girl wanted to spend time with me. By the time I left for college that fall, I was starting to believe that she might be “the one” to marry.

What I didn’t see was how much work God still needed to do in my life.

Like Denise, I’d grown up in a great Christian home, and I truly love and appreciate my parents. However, I’d somehow missed the point of Christianity. I believed that following rules was the whole point, that obedience alone would save me. I was pretty comfortable on the path of legalism.

During my fist year of college, I continued my relationship with Denise. I wrote frequent letters to her and drove home often to visit her. I was convinced that we would marry.

Then, unexpectedly, she broke my heart.

Shortly after she began her freshman year (my sophomore year) at a different college, she told me she thought we should break up and consider dating other people. I was crushed.

As I look back at that year, I’m thankful for roommates who supported me and became true brothers in Christ. I’m also extremely grateful that my parents sacrificed so I could attend a Christian college. God used key friendships and that community of believers to help me on the path of true repentance and faith in Christ.

Even though Denise started dating someone else, she and I maintained our friendship (sure helped that our parents lived less than a block away from each other). I held on to the hope that we would get back together someday.

The summer after my sophomore year, though, Denise came home from college engaged. I couldn’t understand it, and the few things she’d told me about this man worried me. With my hopes of getting back together crushed, I started telling myself to move on.

That, however, was not God’s plan.

One evening church service, in particular, stands out to me. The pastor preached from I Corinthians 13 – the love chapter. Denise’s name was in my mind the entire time (ironic, since she and her fiancé were in that same service). I’ve rarely had such a strong impression that God was getting my attention. The pastor spoke about how we are to love each other as Christians, and I knew God was calling me to love Denise this way.

I argued with Him and listed my objections: it wouldn’t look good for an ex-boyfriend to pursue this kind of relationship, I’d be interfering with an engagement, my friends and family wouldn’t understand or believe this was from God, and I’d risk being vulnerable again.

But God knew how the story would end, of course.

God knew that engagement was wrong, and that Denise needed a true friend. He also wanted me to learn to depend on Him, no matter what others thought.

In the end, I submitted to God and sought to love Denise as a sister in Christ, with the love chapter as my guide. It was a difficult path. But God’s love for Denise did reach her, and I’m humbled that it was partly through me. She broke that engagement, and His work transformed both our lives.

By the time we got engaged a few years later, both of our lives had been rooted in God - a secure foundation for our eventual marriage. I thank God for his faithfulness to Denise and me through those difficult times.

I’m not the type to wear my feelings on my sleeve, but on our wedding day, I was emotional as this beautiful woman walked down the aisle to commit herself in marriage to me in front of our families and friends. I simply couldn’t stop the tears – especially in light of all God had done to finally bring us to that amazing day.