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“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa
About a month ago, former
president Jimmy Carter and his wife,
Rosalynn, celebrated their 75th
anniversary. Early on, Rosalynn was
friends with Carter’s younger sister.
The sister set the two up on a date in
1945 and after that first date, Carter
told his mother, “She’s the girl I want
to marry.” A year later, he did. The
Carters have what might almost be
considered a mystical bond. His mother,
“Miss Lillian,” a nurse, delivered
Rosalynn and a few days later brought
her then-toddler, Jimmy, in to see the
new baby. In a CNN interview, Carter was
asked about the secret to a lasting
marriage. He responded, in part, “First
of all, it’s best to choose the right
woman, which I did.” He certainly
appears to have done something right.
For her part, Rosalynn once though she
would never marry, “And then, along came
Jimmy Carter and my life has been an
adventure ever since.”
I sometimes marvel that my wife, Charlotte, and I have been married as long as we have. I know I’ve (I hope only occasionally) given her potential reason to leave, and that at times she might describe our marriage as less “adventure” than something else. But although we’re approaching 36 years, the Carters make us seem like amateurs. To be fair, they married younger than we did, and they’ve lived longer—Carter was 21 when they married and is now 96, Rosalynn is 93—but there’s something to be said for that kind of “staying power.” There are couples at church who have been married longer than we have—but none of the wives have to put up with a husband like me. Jill Stuckey, superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Georgia and longtime friend of the Carters, observed that, Meanwhile, the COVID-delayed 2020 Olympics are finally under way in Tokyo, Japan. Some of the events require strength or skill, like weightlifting or archery, while others demand endurance, like the marathon (26.2 miles) or cross-country cycling (244km/151.6 mi. for men, 147km/91.3 mi. for women). Like any other successful endeavor, a marriage—or a marathon—happens one day, one step, at a time. The same is true of the Christian life. Some believers use the term “Christian walk” and, just as walking involves taking one step at a time, we follow Christ one day, one hour, one minute at a time. Simon (Peter), his brother Andrew, James and John could never have imagined what would happen after they responded to Jesus’ invitation to “‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people.’” (Matt. 4:19b New American Standard Bible). Sometimes their lives would be an “adventure” and sometimes they would be something less pleasant. Jesus told his disciples on more than one occasion, that Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Let’s not become discouraged in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not become weary.” (Gal. 6:9 NASB). You don’t need to be a farmer or even a gardener to know that you will not have a harvest if you don’t do the things beforehand that are necessary. Paul also wrote to his young friend, Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;” (2 Tim. 4:7 NASB). We dare not stop running until the race is over and the victory won. There is no anniversary for the couple who can’t persist day by day, no medal waiting for the one who stops halfway, and there is no spiritual reward for the one who stops short of the goal. “For this reason we also, since the day we heard about it, have not ceased praying for you . . . for the attaining of all perseverance and patience;” (Col. 1:9a, 11b NASB.) Copyright © 2021 by David Phelps
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