“No
place that far” is a number one country hit single co-written and sung by Sara
Evans. She also stars in the music video
for the song in which she is determined to do everything possible within her
power to keep her lover (husband) close by her side till death does them
apart. Did she succeed in doing that? The video of No Place That Far and the lyrics go like this;
I
can't imagine, any greater fear
Then
waking up, without you here,
And
though the sun, would still shine on,
My
whole world, would all be gone,
But
not for long,
If
I had to swim a hundred rivers, just to climb a thousand walls,
Always
know that I would find a way, to get to where you are,
There's
no place that far
It wouldn't matter why we're apart,
Lonely
minds or two stubborn hearts
Nothing
short of God above
Could
turn me away from your love
I
need you that much
If I had to run, if I had to crawl
If
I had to swim a hundred rivers, just to climb a thousand walls,
Always
know that I would find a way, to get to where you are,
There's
no place that far
Baby
there is no place that far
A
few days ago, my wife and I sat for a long time with a brother whose 26 years
of married life is coming to a grinding halt and possibly threatening to
shatter all possibility of a happy ending.
Prior to this sitting with him, his dear wife had written a long letter
to us asking if there is a way to save her marriage. There was so much of heartache and plenty of tears
in that letter. But before we could talk
to her in person about the issue, she could take it no longer and left the
house and moved to a distant place without letting anyone know, including us. Him being oblivious about his wife’s letter
to us, we invited ourselves to his home, rather his sickness provided us the
opportunity, and somehow managed to goad him into speaking about the darkness
that was hovering over his life and family.
At first, he attempted to present us a rosy image of his life but must
have felt he was fooling himself in trying to convince us.
When
the flood gates were cracked a little, there was no stopping of the things stored
in that heart. But again, in his mind,
he was the victim; there we sat wondering how two people who are desperate to
save their marriage but do not want to give up the very things that are
destroying their marriage. There was no
sign of desperation, no desire to cross any rivers or climb any walls from
either side; both sides seem to be waiting for the other side to cross the
rivers and climb the walls.
Unfortunately, though the song is beautiful, but even Sara Evans could not keep crossing the rivers and climbing the walls to keep her husband by her side and gave up on a 13 year old marriage with three beautiful children.
Most of us have heard the romantic term “I
want to grow old with you” but in today’s world this term has become a wishful
thinking for many. The challenges of
growing old are not compatible with a world that is infatuated with
selfishness; self-centered life has no place for another human being and
therefore, marriages keep crumbling, dashing every dream of a happy life and
putting the children’s lives in bewilderment.
Maybe there was a mistake or two from
one side or the other; maybe one side did not do what it should have done,
maybe the depravity of this fallen world got to the marriage…there are so many
maybes. However, no marriage is beyond
repair if both the parties are willing to dream again, hope and again and
believe again. Like the song above, if
we can re-kindle the kind of love we had when we met, if we can bring back the
memories and start all over again, life can still be beautiful. Growing old with one woman and one man still
in love is a beautiful thing; it gives you purpose, focus, joy, companionship
and satisfaction that no other relationship can give. Relatively speaking, my wife and I are still
young, and our son is going to celebrate his 21st birth day on November
7. But even from this relatively short
marriage experience, we can tell you that we don’t know when these 22 years
went away from us, it feels as if we just got married a couple of years ago.
I am not telling we had the perfect
ride. We have had our differences. We had different languages; we came from
different countries, different religious backgrounds, and different family upbringings
and so on. We had our misunderstandings,
quarrels, arguments, anger. We had
financial, social, in-laws, career, childcare, and so many other problems. We went through sickness, opposition from
outside, criticisms, accusations and you name it. The problems we faced from outside of our
marriage drove us closer to each other but the problems from within our
marriage relationship were the ones that threatened us to drift apart. Therefore, from early in our marriage, we decided
to not let a day go bye before we settled our misunderstandings, quarrels,
arguments and anger. These were the
greatest threat to our marriage than anything else. For that case, I am grateful for my wife who
took most of the initiative in mending our differences before the sun went
down. If not her gentle and sacrificial heart, there was no way I could have
pulled this amazing marriage thus far. I
think it is imperative for someone to initiate the process of restoration before
it is too late, before the sun goes down.
My wife will never let me sleep before I ask forgiveness or forgave her. After 22 years, we are pretty sure we can perfectly
be happy to live in an Island all by ourselves with no other human beings
around. To cherish the love of your
life, to make her/him happy, to see her/him smile, to feel her/his pain, to
wipe her/his tears, to make her/him laugh, and to make her/him dream again can
become divine ecstasy. And for a
believer in Christ, if you can serve your wife/husband with such devotion, you
have then qualified yourself as the servant of Christ. Benjamin Warfield was one such servant of
Christ who nourished an invalid wife due to a severe thunderstorm during their
honeymoon until she died nearly 40 years later; he went on to become one of the
great American theologians of 19th and 20th century.
No comments:
Post a Comment