Out of conflict and crisis frequently emerge life’s most significant periods of inner growth. Indeed, according to the Scriptures, from diversity are fortitude and spiritual stamina born.
Allison and Logan’s story in Book 1 of THE STONEWYCKE LEGACY was a happy one. Yet their coming together cannot be viewed as an end, but rather as the beginning of an ongoing journey that, if it is to build a permanent relationship of love, will encompass more than simply living “happily ever after.”
Certainly a deep joy has its part in this journey, but a truly God-divined path will be richly filled with trials as well. The long-haul character of life’s most meaningful relationships and experiences is often overlooked by our short-sighted vision which views only the now. We make decisions lightly, little considering the day-by-day lifetime of dedication necessary to carry them out. Nor do we adequately foresee the unavoidable adversities which will build inner resiliency and strength of character that enables us to persevere in those aspects of life to which we have pledged ourselves.
In no two areas of life do our decisions and surface expectations run aground from lack of awareness of the long-haul than in marriage and spiritual dedication. The commitment required to transform a loving marriage into a lifetime partnership of sustained growth and mutual fulfillment parallels the commitment required to sustain one’s Christian life following the one-time decision to follow Christ.
Neither commitment to marriage nor to God comes easy. The decision can be made in a moment. Living out the commitment to that decision, after the gloss fades, over the course of decades—that requires something altogether different than a burst of enthusiasm. That sort of lifetime commitment requires daily dedication to endure, to stick with the decision over the long-haul.
It is no surprise, then, that so often in the Bible God uses marriage as the perfect illustration or “type” of what being a Christian is really like. Entering into a marriage covenant, and giving one’s life to Christ (as His “bride”) are similar in a host of ways.
Little wonder, therefore, that when Logan Macintyre and his new bride Allison MacNeil begin to falter in their new lives as Christians, their marriage relationship also starts to waver. They must both learn that most fundamental of lessons: that commitment requires sacrifice, that love requires the laying down of one’s own preconceptions, and that only in denying one’s self and surrendering all to the Lord will true fulfillment come.
Their story, and their struggle, is not a unique one. All husbands and wives—and all Christians—must eventually pass through the same refining process if they are to discover what true commitment is—to one another and to the Lord.
That process of growth is the soil out of which maturity is able to blossom.