Now, I love you, but if you believe this—this idea that God made you and another person as a perfect complement to each other—I need you right now to put this book down, take out a piece of paper, and list all the biblically sound reasons you believe the One or soul mates or other halves exist. Because here’s what I know: God did not make us for each other. God made us for himself, for his glory, and for communion with him. The only person we were made for was Jesus Christ and to give that position to any human is to elevate a bond far higher than it can sustain itself. That relationship will disappoint you. It will break your heart over and over again.

I don’t know if you feel this way, but one of my largest struggles is that now it seems people are only as valuable as they are marriageable. Some days it feels like once a guy knows you’re not wife material, he decides you’re not worth knowing at all.

It’s hard enough when it feels as if this whole dating scene is a crazy, drawn-out game of musical chairs. In the beginning, when you’re 16 and carefree and only a little boy crazy, the game is still fun. But year after year, round after round, that music still plays and you see your friends scrambling a little faster to ensure they have a seat. You start to realize there are fewer and fewer chairs, and yet so many people. Suddenly your best friend since second grade elbows you in the ribs to get a seat as the music screeches to a halt. And with all that anxiety and pressure and sweating, the game’s not as much fun as it used to be.

Dating is really exhausting. And when you have those days (and nights) where the difficulty catches up to you and you’d rather bury your head under a pillow, lounge in your leggings, and cancel on your latest blind date, know that you can join me for a Golden Girls marathon anytime. As long as you bring takeout.

The Only One We Were Made For

I wonder if all this floundering is due to the fact that there’s so much pressure to choose the right person. You have to feel that too, right? You have to search high and low to find that person who’s a good fit for your strengths and weaknesses. That person whose life plan lines up with yours. That person who is patient enough and kind enough and spiritual enough. That person you’ve stopped calling the One but still secretly long to believe in.

Now, I love you, but if you believe this—this idea that God made you and another person as a perfect complement to each other—I need you right now to put this book down, take out a piece of paper, and list all the biblically sound reasons you believe the One or soul mates or other halves exist. Because here’s what I know: God did not make us for each other. God made us for himself, for his glory, and for communion with him. The only person we were made for was Jesus Christ and to give that position to any human is to elevate a bond far higher than it can sustain itself. That relationship will disappoint you. It will break your heart over and over again.

The One is a mirage we’ve constructed to romanticize the very real, sanctifying process of marriage, and it’s hurting us, y’all. This idea is eating away at a true, beautiful view of marriage that has less to do with wooing and more to do with dying. Marriage is best seen in our weaknesses colliding with each other, not in completing each other.

Isaiah 43:7 reads, “Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory” (NLT). Did you catch that? For I have made them for marriage … Nope. For I have made them for full, happy lives … Nope. For I have made them for my glory. And this should be a comfort to us. You don’t have to find the One or even happiness; you only have to glorify God.

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