Supply Chain

Fairly early in our marriage my wife was encountering unusual stresses from a variety of sources, so she went to our pastor and asked for counseling. The pastor listened, then said it was over his head. He recommended a Christian counselor, so my wife went there. After a few sessions, the counselor asked her to bring her husband, so I sat through a session. Then she asked my wife to leave and she talked to just me. In the course of the conversation, I explained to her my approach to being my wife's husband. "Most people think of marriage as a 50-50 proposition. I don't. My aim is to give my wife 100%. I don't want to hold back. I don't want to wait for her to meet me halfway. I give her all I have all the time. Now, if she was to do the same, we'd have a 200% marriage, but the least we'll have is a 100% marriage. I can do this because I'm not relying on my wife as my source of love or satisfaction or other basic needs. I'm looking to my Savior. He supplies, perhaps using her or others or however He chooses. So I can give without requiring a return." The counselor looked at me, eyes wide. "Wow!" she said. That's ... crazy!" We didn't go back.

Was that crazy? I don't think so. Remember the story of Jesus and the woman at the well? He told her all about her 5 husbands and she ran off to tell the village. His disciples returned and were confused. They marveled that He was talking to a Samaritan woman (John 4:27), so they suggested He eat (John 4:31). He answered, "I have food to eat that you do not know about" (John 4:32). They still didn't get it, so He told them plainly, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work" (John 4:34). "My nutrition, the supply that fuels my existence, is doing His will." To which the disciples likely answered, "Wow! That's crazy." It's not. Paul said, "My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Php 4:19). Not according to your resources; according to His. David wrote, "YHWH is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Psa 23:1). Jesus said, "Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matt 6:25-26). And on and on.

A somewhat archaic but still recognized term for God is "Providence." It references divine guidance or care. Capitalized, it is God's power for sustaining and guiding. "Provide-ence." You see it, right? So, yes, by human standards, relying wholly on God to provide every little thing you need, freeing you to give everything He asks, is stupid -- crazy. but we're not talking about human standards. Jesus, in essence, asked, "Who are you going to believe? Your stomachs, or God?" Paul wrote, "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" (Rom 8:32). You're not going to say, "You're crazy," are you? What an opportunity to live a fulfilled life of giving without demanding a return!