On the last night of camp in Mendocino County, California, God checked off an item on my bucket list. Around 11:30 p.m., a few campers and staff decided to play night volleyball (I helped keep score). During the tiebreaker game, a camper called a time-out because her mom, who lived nearby, texted her saying the Northern Lights was visible.
In California?! Yes!
We looked up and around and saw it just a little farther from the sandy court. The sky was tinted pink, with faint vertical streaks of light. Through night mode on our phones, we could clearly see the Northern Lights.
Just earlier that evening, a couple of campers and I had been talking about the Aurora Borealis. One camper said it could be seen from her hometown and invited us to visit and experience what her home had to offer. Little did we know, God would show off just a little while later.
The volleyball game was forgotten as we all tried to capture the beautiful phenomenon with our phones and cameras. I couldn’t help but thank God for giving me something I’ve always dreamed of—in a place I never thought it would happen, and at the most random time of year.
It was the perfect reminder of how God can bless us.
Something else I’ve always dreamed of is marriage and yet, I’ve been single my entire life. Like many single people, I’ve received the usual advice: join the dating apps, ask people to set you up, go to speed dating events, date multiple people at once. For a long time, that’s all I heard.
I don’t fault anyone who gave that advice; for them, it worked. But none of it ever resonated with me. And so, the dream of marriage felt like it drifted farther away because I wasn’t “doing anything about it.”
But there have been moments in my life when God surprised me with blessings I never expected, and He did it while I was simply living and enjoying life. This moment with the Northern Lights is the biggest one so far.
Since that night, I’ve started hearing stories of people who met their spouses in the most surprising and unexpected ways. They met when they weren’t dating. They met when they weren’t looking. They met while they were simply living and enjoying life.
Their stories feel like supporting sentences to God’s thesis for my life: Live faithfully the life He gave you, and He will take care of the rest.
That truth has given me hope for the future and grace for today. I no longer feel like the dream of marriage is far away just because I’m not in the dating scene. I no longer feel like I’m not “doing enough.” I believe again—deeply—that it doesn’t have to be up to me to make my dream come true.
God works.
God blesses.
God surprises.
If the dating scene is working for you, know that it does work. Many people can testify to that. But it’s not the only way that works. And if it doesn’t resonate with you, you don’t have to force yourself into it.
We don’t have to resign ourselves to something that doesn’t feel right.
We can trust God instead.
We can simply live faithfully the life He gave us.
“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
Psalm 27:13–14 (NIV)
