Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way.
I know what you’re thinking – you saw the title and thought, “What on earth is he about to talk about?” Just hang tight, I promise it will all make sense by the end of today’s episode. Well, we have reached Friday and today is my last time telling you about something that happened during our time away on the West Coast before we return to our normal schedule. Today I want to tell you about my absolute favorite thing that happened while we were in Oregon. After my lectureship in Boise, I boarded my plane and landed in Portland a few short hours later. My mom picked me up and we drove back to Salem to where my wife and the kids where staying at some dear friends of ours. As we pulled into the driveway, my wife flung the door open and ran out to come see me. It was the longest we had ever been away from each other in our entire marriage as it was a full week apart. The kids were hot on her heels yelling, “Daddy’s home!” There were lots of tears, lots of hugs, and lots of kisses – I sure missed my family, but I especially missed my wife. “I have a surprise for you,” she said after our third or fourth long embrace. “Oh really?” I replied, “What is this surprise you speak of?” She beamed and said, “We are going on a date, just you and me, to go hike the long trail at Silver Creek Falls.” I couldn’t believe it, we were going to get away for a whole day, just the two of us. I hugged her tight and thanked my mom for being willing to watch the kids while we ran off. Silver Creek Falls, for those of you who don’t know, is a State Park in Silverton, Oregon with countless waterfalls and hiking trails. Massive hundred-to-two-hundred-foot trees surround you as you hike along the waters edge that roll offs steep cliffs into water falls as tall as 178 feet. This was the place that Kylie and I came to nearly every other weekend after we were first married, it’s “our spot.” Finally, the day arrived, and we dropped the kids off, picked up our sack lunch as well as Dutch Bros coffee, and headed toward the falls. As we pulled into the park, my mind went back to our first few years as a married couple and all the wonderful memories that we had here. As I reminisced, I couldn’t help but realize that though I was surrounded by bountiful evergreens, lush green ferns and cascading waterfalls, the most beautiful thing there that day was my wife. We walked off hand in hand and started down the trail. As we did, we found ourselves connecting and talking about anything and everything. We had not had a “date” just the two of us in quite a while, and the longer we walked the more I realized how important it was for us to make time to continue to go on “dates” when we got back home to Danville. I need that time to connect, to continue to learn about my wife and just spend time alone with her with no other responsibilities or distractions. Unfortunately, if you take the time to talk to some couples who have been married for quite some time, you will often find a couple that is stagnant, who’s relationship has plateaued. Life gets busy, responsibilities grow, and sometimes couples will find themselves in a place where they just kind of coexist. They know they love each other, but they don’t connect anymore like they used to or continue to learn about each other. As a result, sometimes you read or hear of a couple that finally becomes empty nesters, but once the last kid moves out, they look at each other and realize they are strangers to each other. It is so important as a result that you never stop dating your spouse. It doesn’t have to be fancy or some big romantic hike through the Pacific Northwest, but you need that time alone to connect and grow together.
Now that I have grossed you out by gushing about my wife for the past several minutes, I want us to shift the discussion to something much more personal in nature now. I want to talk about the relationship that you have with Jesus. It sounds cliché, but you’ve heard it over and over again in your life: Christianity is about having a personal relationship with Jesus. But it’s not just cliché, in fact it’s exactly what the Bible teaches. As a matter of fact, in Scripture the church is spoken of as having the closet relationship possible with Christ. Consider if you will Ephesians 5:25-33, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Paul here tells us a mystery, and in short what he is trying to help us understand is that marriage as God has instituted it in this life is to help teach us to understand our relationship as the church with Jesus. The church is the bride of Christ. As we saw in the texts, husbands are to love their wives just as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her. That is quite a standard to live up to, isn’t it? But I don’t just want to pick on husbands today, instead I want to ask you a different question: are you still dating Jesus? Now what can I possibly mean by that? Think about our earthly marriages and our relationships: we realize how important it is to have that time alone one on one with your spouse. To ask them questions, to learn about them, to continue to grow in your knowledge of your husband or wife. You never stop dating your spouse, and as a result your relationships is constantly changing and growing. Well, if marriage is to model our relationship with Christ, what would make us think that that relationship is any different? Consider what the apostle Peter says regarding this matter, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” (2 Peter 3:18) We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. Sometimes I believe we can falsely assume that will just happen on its own over time, but it does not. Years go by as Christians and yet we find that after a while Jesus seems like a stranger to us, we’ve not grown closer to him or grown in our knowledge of him. Our faith is stagnant, plateaued, not grown. That’s because at some point along the way we stopped “dating Jesus”, so to speak. We stopped spending that one-on-one time with him in prayer and in study. We stopped learning about him, but instead relied upon the knowledge we already had for years on end. My friends, don’t stop dating Jesus. No matter how crazy or busy life gets, it is so important that you set aside the time to grow in the knowledge and grace of Christ. Study him, talk to him, learn from him, and as the years go by, you will find yourself growing closer and closer to him with each passing day. Draw near to him, and he will in turn draw near to you.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and weekly video sessions that are uploaded on Saturdays. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.