On Monday morning, my husband and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.  It was a very low key celebration.  The quarantine kept us in the house.  Our own exhaustion kept us in the bed.  Even though we didn’t do much, we were grateful for our time together.

I remember the day of our wedding very well.  I remember that it was the hottest day of the year, and the air conditioning wasn’t working at the church.   I remember my husband showing up late and trying to make up for it by bringing me a candy bar.  I even remember me passing out at the altar.

My husband and I chose to write our own vows.  We said the traditional stuff, too.  I did ask the preacher to modify those to exclude the word “obey”.  (There was no point in me making a vow I had no intention of keeping.)  I have struggled with obedience since I was old enough to think for myself.  The Bible teaches that obedience is better than sacrifice. Well, I was willing to make the necessary sacrifices.

But we didn’t just make vows to each other that day.   We made vows to our community.  We made vows to our God.  Every day we have to choose whether we are going to honor those vows. Every day we choose to do just that.

In the words of an old negro spiritual, “Done made my vow to the Lord, and I never will turn back.  I will go, I shall go, to see what the end will be.”

What vows have you made?  To whom have you made them?  How are you choosing to honor those vows? What is your expected end? And if it doesn’t end the way you expected, will you still think it was worth it?  God knows the end from the beginning.  We do not.  Yet, we make the vows anyway.  That is true faith.