Man, how hot has it been the last few days!
Man, how hot has it been the last few days!! Before I was a theological student, I worked as a Jackeroo up north. Up there, we did all our stock work in winter because summer is just too hot for livestock to do anything but camp under a tree somewhere near water. For us Jackeroos, summer was when we went hard at it with the fencing programme. So there we would be, three crazy blokes, in the scorching heat of a summer day – 50 plus degrees in the shade! – driving steel fence posts into rocky ground with a massive sledge hammer… and not loving one minute of it! But the beers around the barbie at the end of the day somehow made it better than worth it.But I’ve got to say…Fair dinkum, being a husband has been so much harder than those grueling summer fencing programmes! And you know what - it’s also been infinitely better than the beers around the barbie at the end of the day.In the same way that I had wanted to walk off the land when the going got tough, there have been times when I seriously wanted to walk away from my marriage. No one else in my life has the ability to make me feel so small and worthless - so shamed - as my wife… yet, like the beers at the end of the day, and the fellowship around the barbie; just like the sense of respect we blokes felt for each other forged in the overwhelming heat of the relentless desert sun; in a way that no one else can, my wife brings meaning, purpose and significance to my life.When I think about how much time and backbreaking effort I put into those days of fencing, I feel convicted about how much I don’t give for my wife. Paul’s word from God in Ephesians 5 for us men is that we need to give so much and serve so hard that it costs us our lives. Us guys are called to the mission of laying our life down for our wives as we serve them in the same way that Christ loved the Church and gave His life for her [us!]. There’s only one person who can honour us with the significance and respect we need, crave and deserve. The one we lay our lives down for:Happy wife, happy life.Love my wife, love my life.Loved wife, great love life.CheersNicholas