When Kevin Miller asked his future wife Karen to marry him, her response was a quick and enthusiastic yes. Karen would later admit that perhaps she could have given a little more thought to such a monumental life decision: “When Kevin popped the question no one asked us a bigger question: ‘Why do you want to get married?’ At the time, the question would have bordered on blasphemy. After all, Kevin and I were in love—anyone could see that. We shared a commitment to Christ. Who needed better reasons than those?”
Just a few years into marriage, the Millers experienced the common listlessness that seeps into many marriages: “Isn’t there more to life than this? We still love each other, but now that we’ve found each other, is this really all there is?”
Some couples face these questions by thinking that perhaps they married the wrong person. If they had married someone else, the thinking goes, the marriage would still be exciting and fulfilling. But the Millers found that what they lacked most as a couple wasn’t compatibility, it was purpose.
When a pastor asked them to take over the church youth group, the Millers agreed, not realizing how difficult these adolescents were. Writes Karen, “The group literally drove us to our knees. Before each event, we began to pray for the youth and for ourselves. The group also forced Kevin and me to talk more than we had since we dated. We needed to plan together and present a united front to the kids. As we did, we found out a lot about each other.”
Here’s what I love about joint ministry: you think you know all about a person. You’ve been together for years and it’s easy to assume you’ve got everything figured out; there’s nothing more to share, nothing more to discover, nothing more to talk about. Ministry of any significant kind raises a whole host of other issues; you see a side of yourself and each other that you never knew existed. Sometimes, this can be inspiring, but other times, it can be outright scary. The Millers attest that some of the challenges they faced and disagreements they suffered over how best to proceed at times felt like it would tear them apart as a couple. But it made them talk, it gave them a new reason to pray together, and in doing both, a new intimacy was born.
Because our ministry invites the presence of the Holy Spirit, it can also foster new respect. Two good friends of ours asked Lisa and me to do the premarital counseling for their daughter and her future husband. At my home church, I typically do most of these sessions alone, but Lisa wanted to a part of the conversations with our friends’ daughter. The first time we met we hit on some foundational issues right at the start and spent a good bit of time talking over them. Afterwards, Lisa took my hand and looked at me in a new way.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re pretty good at this,” she said and hugged my arm.
The Holy Spirit is pretty good at this; all I did was offer myself for His use. But if that offering created a new respect from my wife, I wasn’t going to complain…
Notice that this respect came from doing the ministry together. I have done hours upon hours of premarital counseling without Lisa there; it’s when we joined in the effort that our own marriage benefited. The Millers experienced the same thing.
“The biggest surprise was that through the process something good was happening to our marriage. We were working together at something. When we failed, at least it was our failure; and when we succeeded, it was our success. During most of each workday, we were miles apart. But when we led the youth group, we were arm-in-arm and heart-to-heart.”
Kevin and Karen gained a new respect for each other as they saw each other’s gifts put to use, and they stumbled on a great discovery: “What a puzzle! That youth group ministry, which by all rights should have pulled our marriage apart, actually bonded it in a new level of intimacy. Without trying to work on our marriage at all, it had become richer and deeper.”
The Third Hunger
The Millers discovered what they call “a third hunger.” Genesis reveals three aspects of marriage:
- Companionship (Genesis 2:18: “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him.”)
- Children (Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply…”)
- Contribution (Genesis 1:28: “Fill the earth and subdue it, and rule…)
In one sense, we could call this third aspect of Genesis, “joint fulfilling service,” the Old Testament equivalent of Matthew 6:33: “Seek first the Kingdom of God…”
If our mission from Christ is to “seek first the Kingdom of God” how can a successful God-honoring marriage not be marked by mission? We’re not told to seek first an intimate marriage, a happy life, obedient children, or anything else. Jesus tells us to seek first one thing, and one thing only: His Kingdom and His righteousness (the two words define and build on each other, creating one common pursuit).
The Millers understand, as I have come to understand, that life without this aim, and marriage without this purpose, is going to lose a lot of luster. “We hunger for this today: cooperating together, meshing, working like a mountain climbing team, ascending the peak of our dream, and then holding each other at the end of the day. God has planted this hunger deep within every married couple. It’s more than a hunger for companionship. It’s more than a hunger to create new life. It’s a third hunger, a hunger to do something significant together. According to God’s Word, we were joined to make a difference. We were married for a mission.”
Being “married for a mission” can revitalize a lot of marriages in which the partners think they suffer from a lack of compatibility; my suspicion is that many of these couples actually suffer from a lack of purpose. Jesus’ words given to individuals is perhaps even truer in marriage. When we give away our life, we find it. When we focus outside our marriage, we end up strengthening our marriage.
The before-you-have-kids years and the empty-nest years provide particularly wonderful opportunities to “recalibrate” and rebuild your marriage on the back of shared mission. Whether you seek to become the sports/coaching couple, the Bible study leading couple, the local school mentors couple, or the hiking club couple, using extra time for a divine purpose refuels marriage, passion, appreciation, and fulfillment. It can revolutionize your relationship. You know you can’t “re-create” the initial infatuation you felt years ago, but you can create the even more powerful bond of purpose and spiritual mission.
A woman once told me, “Over ten years of marriage, I have found that when my husband and I focus on our own needs, and whether they’re being met, our marriage begins to self-destruct. But when we are ministering together, we experience, to the greatest extent we’ve known, that ‘the two shall become one.’”
Look outside your marriage and build your relationship with renewed joint purpose.
Date Night Questions to Make This Post Come Alive in Your Own Marriage:
- Do we have any shared passions that God could use to reach others?
- Do either one of us already have a leading ministry that the other one can join? How would we make that happen?
- How can ministering for God together help us be more effective at what we’re already doing alone?
- On our sixtieth wedding anniversary, what do we want to be able to look back at and know we accomplished something for God together? What steps can we begin taking today to make that happen?
This article was adapted from Gary’s book: A Lifelong Love: How to Have Lasting Intimacy, Purpose and Friendship in Your Marriage.
Makori Alvin. says
Wow what a post. I am not yet married but this post is so enriching. How I hope and pray that many married couples especially those who may be struggling in their marriages and asking, ‘Is there more?’ like the Miller’s were in their marriage read this post. It’s rich!!!!!
Steve Simmons says
Dear Gary,
My Helen and I lost our spouses after 52 years of marriage. I looked at my life and told the Lord that I did not want to be without a wife. My first wife, Sandy, and I had run, promoted, worked on Hands To Serve and I had seen what a blessing an intelligent Christian woman makes in marriage and in ministry. Even at 78 I wanted to keep right on ministering. I came to England to speak in churches and visit prayer partners. Two of the prayer partners were widows. The first one was sweet and very nice but my heart did not respond in a way that I thought was correct. The next widow that I visited I had known for fifty or so years. Our families had become friends. As I visited with her we talked, prayed and cried together. I left her house with a total different feeling and I started praying and communicating. We have now been married for a year now and we are involved in several aspects of ministry. I have the consistent idea that as the Dutch say “I have fallen with my nose in the butter”. In other words we are being blessed by our Lord every day and HE has worked out all of the details so that our lives together are ones of rejoicing and profitability for our Lord Jesus Christ. I just thought that you would appreciate a story with many blessings in it. in HIM, Steve
Gary Thomas says
I did, Steve. Thanks for sharing this beautiful story of God’s goodness and faithfulness. So happy for your happiness in this season of life!
Kevin Scharper says
What a great blog to affirm our Sacred Marriage class who have just completed Session #1 & #2. Marriage with a Mission ties together so much in Genesis & and in Mathew. God has great timing! Thanks Gary for tying together God’s Word and so many stories of people like those of Kevin & Karen Miller to help illustrate God’s design of marriage…to make us Holy.
My wife, Jill & I have been using your Sacred Marriage materials for “almost” 2 decades to assist couples in finding the healthy meaningful purpose they have been looking for and created for.
Please pray for our newest group – couples in a prison and substance recovery program in an environment focused on Jesus – many of whose backgrounds growing up are chilling, extremely sad, full of mistrust and deceit, with much daily misery and lack of hope.
The Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are still few.
Again – thank you and keep listening to the Spirit to keep up your blog and writing.
May you be encouraged!!!
Gary Thomas says
Thanks for your important work, Kevin. Prison ministry and substance abuse recovery are two notoriously difficult and heartbreaking ministries. I’m so impressed you’re taking on BOTH. Bless you as you serve our Lord so faithfully.
Marilyn Thiessen says
Excellent article, great timing for us to read today, thank you Gary and Lisa for your ministry, love your books and video series Cherish
Judy says
YET again………….THANKS GARY. When, now nearly 56 years ago when my guy proposed it was with the words: “HONEY, will you go with me where GOD leads us together” You can guess my esponse…In June we will have been married 55 years. At that time I THOUGHT I was signing up to be wife to home town pastor!!!! Little did I know………………Prior to our first anniversary, we were invited by our world church to go to Libya where at that time we had a hospital. The ruler that had given permission for that hospital was Gdaffi’s predecessor, and kindly, elderly, benevolent king who in his youth had fought the colonizing (Christian) power….he asked that we NOT proselyte his people Our first two babies were born there, and when our hospital was nationalized we were the last to leave. It was a kickstart to my husband’s determined career of making GOSPEL relevant/understood by Muslims worldwide….Our marriage is NOT perfect, but our common mission has been glue, and we praise GOD!