Episode 35 | The "Beyond Me" Story: Marriage

Adam and Erin Anglin join Autumn to take on the topic of marriage anecdotally, as Adam and Erin share their own experience dating, getting married, and growing through the joining of two lives into one new family unit.

Our inclination as modern Americans is to see everything through the lens of individualism. In order to make sense out of our lives, we place ourselves into a kind of story. Inevitably, we center ourselves in this story. So, if the people, places, and things surrounding us help us to become and express our best, truest, or most authentic selves, they are useful to the story. If they don’t support that central storyline, they are not useful. Expressive individualism encourages this same rationale as a means of assessing marriage.

Adam and Erin's marriage, though, demonstrates a different reality. Their marriage, and the very institution of marriage points to something greater. It points to the love of Jesus. The biblical story prompts those of us who are married to ask "How can we use our relationship to demonstrate God’s love, not only to each other, but also to others"? The meaning of your marriage is actually fulfilled when a love indicative of Jesus’ love, is not hoarded to create a great life for yourselves, but is multiplied to create a home, a place in which others can experience welcome, hospitality, and love.