“I Will Be Here” by Steven Curtis Chapman

Tomorrow morning if you wake up,
And the sun does not appear
I, I will be here

If in the dark we lose sight of love,
Hold my hand, and have no fear
Cause I, I will be here

I will be here when you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind,
I will listen and
I will be here when the laughter turns to cryin’
Through the winning, losing and tryin’
We’ll be together ’cause I will be here

Tomorrow morning if you wake up,
And the future is unclear
I, I will be here
As sure as seasons are made for change,
Our lifetime’s are made for years
So, I, I will be here

I will be here and you can cry on my shoulder,
When the mirror tells us we’re older,
I will hold you and
I will be here to watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here

I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me

I, I will be here

And just as sure as seasons are made for change
Our lifetime’s are made for years
So, I I will be here we’ll be together

I will be here

Dear God, my wife’s aunt sang this song at our wedding 34 years ago (today). It’s amazing how we can bravely, naively, and ignorantly make these promises. My wife and I were 21 and 22, respectively, when we made ours. Pretty young. Pretty naive. Pretty ignorant. Life would have challenges for us. And we’ve made it this far. I’m grateful we are still happy together. I’m grateful we still love and enjoy each other. I know many don’t. In mathematical terms, our relationship has not been the solid positive slope we anticipated. It’s been a sine wave with a positive trend: an oscillating wave. There have been many times when we’ve take two steps back to only get one step foward. But there have been other times when we’ve take five steps forward and only lost one step backward. My point is, it’s been harder to keep the promises of this song than we thought it would be, but because we have kept the promises we still have each other.

I don’t think I’ve made this link between the parable of the sower I read yesterday and the life of a marriage, but I suspect it might be as true for relationships as it is for individual lives.

• The seed that falls on the path is the encouter between two people that just doesn’t work from the start.
• The seed that falls in the rocks is the encounter that leads to a short-term relationship, but roots never grow, and they end up flaming out when things get uncomfortable.
• The seed that falls in the thorns is the encounter that leads to real relationship, but we allow our hearts to get distracted by the pursuit of money and the cares of this world.
• The seed that falls on the good soil is the relationship that works to till its soil. It works to love selflessly. It works to serve. It ignores the idols of even the relationship itself and gets each person to selflessly given themselves to you and to the other.

I want to be careful to say I don’t think there is a magic potion that will give someone a completely happy marriage. There is no solid “if/then” statement. “IF I do this, THEN this will definitely happen.” No, things can still go very wrong. The loss of a child is one. Sickness. Mental illness. The wheels can completely come off, and we might not end up living the life we want to live.

So back to the promises of this song. Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife are still married, but I know they’ve encountered difficult times. He’s talked about them. The most outwardly known one is when one of their young children died through an accident at home. They hadn’t taken that into account when they made their promises. I have a long list of things I didn’t take into account when I made my promises to my wife. But here we are, living up to the promises.

Father, help me to be here for my wife regardless of what it costs me. She’s your daughter. I’m your son-in-law. You have given her to me in marriage. Regardless of what it costs me, I am responsible for loving her the way you want me to love her. “I will be true to the promise I have made to [her] and to [You] who gave [her] to me.”

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen