Our society's obsession with marriage

I'm going to break my blogging record (13 posts in a month) this month. It's only Nov. 8th and this will be my 10th post.

So I was in my preceptor's office this week. A patient came in and had signs of depression. My preceptor (Dr. Wah) made a comment that stuck out to me. He said, "If we start the anti-depressant now, you can't really stop taking them until after Christmas." The patient asks why. "Because Christmas is the worst time of year for this sort of thing."

I know it's kinda common sense how it could be the worst time of year for depression and what not and yet, Christmas is often touted as the best time of year. My favorite season is the winter. I love the snow, I love my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I love the caroling, the sharing of love...and yet, there are people for whom holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving are the worst times of year. And I started thinking about how it might be one of the sadder times of year for me as well...which also ties into one of the struggles I've been having lately.

Maybe it's because I'm super sensitive now, I don't know. But it seems like EVERYWHERE I look, EVERYTHING I hear, EVERYTHING I see is about marriage. WHY is our society so obsessed with marriage? Gay people want it, straight people want it, single people want it, males want it, females want it...Christmas songs, love songs, pop songs, rock songs, rap songs etc. all sing about relationships and love. Next year is what I've dubbed, "The Year of Marriage". I think I know about 4 or 5 couples (all of them are friends of mine) who are getting married. There are quizzes online and in magazines constantly talking about finding "the one". There are Christian e-dating services. We as Christians analyze constantly...making lists of qualities and characteristics you would look for in a future spouse because as a Christians "dating" is serious and we don't mess around.

Don't get me wrong. I think marriage is a beautiful gift from God and there is nothing wrong with being married or getting married or wanting to get married.
But my thing is, why the obsession over it? You know, this world makes it really tough on a single woman in her 20s who desires to chase after God's heart. It seems as if in order to really flee temptation I would have to hide myself under a rock! Seriously, where can I go? The talk is all around me!

I've had increasing frustration recently with the M1 CMDA small group. Because all we talk about (or end up talking about) is med school anxiety, med school, or boys. I never was the type of girl that enjoyed that type of conversation. I went to a movie night yesterday for the small group and before the movie, the topic of convo was boys (who's cute in our class, in the other classes, who can match up with who, etc.). And it's not like I'm the minority (being single) in that small group. There are girls that are single, girls that are engaged, girls that have boyfriends in that small group. And after the movie, the talk was about tests and med school. I came home and just cried. I don't learn anything about those girls in the time I hang out with them...It's gotten to the point where if there wasn't so much talk, I could be happy for the people who are getting engaged and getting married...but now, I just want to be away from it all.

In Mark 12:23-25, Jesus says there will be no marriage after the second coming. So what is the big deal?? Why the obsession? Not everyone HAS to get married to be complete and find fulfillment in life (It's not going to do that for you anyways)! I'm not saying that I don't want to get married. It's just, since it's such a weakness of mine, I don't want to think about it 5 days out of the week! You know, it's just like Satan to do this. He did it with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and he's doing it with marriage. It has become an idol in our culture and we worship it. We have given marriage a sort of power...good things have come from marriage and therefore, if we get married, perhaps good things will come to us too. And yet, it is because we have lost focus. All good things come from God and nothing else. He does things THROUGH marriage but by itself, marriage has no power on its own.

I wish I could get away from this world for a few days...My eyes, my ears, my head have had enough.