Have you ever watched a romance between a couple bloom and grow?  I've observed one couple with somewhat marked interest.  I think in part it is because I have such a huge respect for this guy.  But I also think that it is in part because I don't understand why he is with...well...her.  You see, he is one of those guys who loves just because it seems like it is the core characteristic of his entire being.  Make no mistake: He's a pretty rustic-looking fellow, but it's as if God Himself just took up residency in this guy and directs his every move.  That is why I don't understand why he can be with...her.

She's not what a lot of us would consider "marriage material."  Does that sound cruel?  What I mean is, she doesn't seem to have a few basic things figured out about love and being married.  Like mutual respect, honor, fidelity, etc.  She seems to think that he is there to be her sugardaddy or something.  She plays up to him to get what she wants.  Sometimes he gives in, but many times I see him struggling to teach her how to live as the kind of wife he needs (and as far as I'm concerned, deserves).  He's always a gentleman, but there are times when he has to put his foot down (No, he doesn't abuse or intimidate her.  He's just very firm about it all).

I know sometimes people say, "Well, it takes two to tango; I wonder what HE is doing or NOT doing to make her act like that."  You know, when he has to go across town, bust into some crack-head's apartment, drag her out of there stoned, drunk, and smelling like sex, it gets pretty exhausting to listen to people say such things.  (The next morning, of course, she's like, "I'm sorry, honey..." blah blah blah and he forgives her YET AGAIN!!!)

"Well, why doesn't he divorce her?  It seems awfully dysfunctional for him to stay in that relationship."  I couldn't agree more!!!  I'm not trying to defend him, but it seems he has some convoluted dream that she can somehow become the woman he wants.  "Well, hasn't anyone told him that he can't change her?"  I don't know.  He seems like he knows quite a bit and I'm sure he's heard that before, but its like he's not all that convicned.  He seems to think love is the most powerful thing in the universe.  Well...I mean...I don't mean to disagree with him, but this gal is really...well...I can't really bring myself to say anything low against her for the sheer fact that she is this guy's wife and I respect him too much.

I actually did have a chat with him once about this.  "Well," he said, "its like this.  I love that woman more than my own life.  And she's really come a long way.  You're too young to remember what she was like before all this.  I found her actually lying literally face-down in a gutter.  She was one of those wild girls that just could't stand daddy's rules so she left home.  She decided she was going to make it big--be a somebody.  Like so many other naive little teens she was promised a lot and was given very little in return for her body.  Those bastards had her jumping through all their little hoops promising her if she did this or that then she would gain all the world had to offer.  Bunch of cheap chumps.  I found her when she was eighteen--four years after she left home.  There she was in the gutter just lying there crying and stained with blood on what was left of her undergarments.  She'd had an abortion performed by the man at the laundromat."  I looked at him askance.  "You know, the man with a hanger who'll do any job for cheap.  Anyway, she was half out of it, so I called an ambulance and went to the hospital with her, saying I was a friend.  They saved her life.  Well, she said I did.  I asked if she had a place to go after the hospital.  She shrugged her shoulders and said, 'Yeah.'  So I asked where and she was like, 'a friends house.'  I didn't believe her and told her as much.  She just said, 'I'll find a place.'  So I said, 'Well, can I be your friend?'  Well, she decided to take a chance with me because she really felt like she didn't have much more to lose, so when she was well enough, she left the hospital with me."

To make a long story short, they started out rough, but things got better as he loved her patiently, but firmly.  They decided to get married (AWESOME wedding, btw), but still have troubles from time to time.  He still believes that she'll pull through alright.

I think he just might be right.  I've never known Jesus to be wrong.  And maybe someday his bride will come to her senses and be as pure and spotless as a virgin on her wedding day.

Religion makes all kinds of meaningless rules and promises many things if we just jump through the right hoops.  Unfortunately, no religion can give what it promises.  A promise is only as good as the one who makes it.  And if the one who makes it is this establishment called Religion, then it is bound to fail because abstract concepts are not bound to their promises (like who will hold Religion accountable?  Will Religion end up in a prison somewhere, or be fined for not following through?).