In 1994, Mark Chesnutt recorded the hit song “Goin’ through the Big D,” which had a chorus that said:
I’m goin’ through the big D
And don’t mean Dallas
I can’t believe what the judge had to tell us
I got the Jeep she got the palace
I’m goin’ through the big D
And don’t mean Dallas
But maybe getting the Jeep instead of the palace wasn’t such a bad deal after all. According to the New York Times, people going through divorce in this struggling economy are trying to avoid getting stuck with their houses: “Chalk up another victim for the crashing real estate market: the easy divorce.
“With nearly one in six homes worth less than the mortgage owed on it, according to Moody’s Economy.com, divorce lawyers and financial advisers around the country say the logistics of divorce have been turned around. “We used to fight about who gets to keep the house,” said Gary Nickelson, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. ‘Now we fight about who gets stuck with the dead cow.'”
In fact, the financial strain of divorce has caused some couples to either back out of a divorce or continue to live together after their separation. For many, the personal benefits of separation are not worth the financial costs of divorce.
While the culture’s decision on divorce may be driven by the economics of the situation, the Bible calls believers to a far greater motivation for preserving marriages. When the apostle Paul writes about marriage in Ephesians 5, he points out that the one flesh union of a man and a woman is to be preserved because it images the one flesh union between Christ and the church. In other words, the biblical picture of marriage and divorce is not all about the Benjamins; it is all about Jesus and his bride.
This has everything to do with the way that we counsel couples in our local churches who are considering divorce. The primary reasons that we call them to remain in marriage are not for the sake of their financial stability or for the sake of their children’s upbringing (as important as those things may be).
Instead, we call them to persevere in marriage because it pictures the resilient, unbroken union of Christ and the church. In a culture of no-fault divorce, persevering marriages are one of the most effective ways we can testify to the relentless love of Christ.
That’s the kind of truth that may not result in a Mark Chesnutt hit song, but it is the kind of truth that we can celebrate as we wait for the warrior king to return and reclaim everything in the universe, including the Jeep and the palace.
