Is the honeymoon over?

After three years of marriage there is no question that the honeymoon is over. Our honeymoon was a week of adventure and leisure. Now it is only a pleasant memory. We are left to fend with life, a life of frustrating repetition, lack of adventure and sometimes the odd indication of lack of meaning. Still we have each other and love each other desperately every chance we remember it.

I fear from time to time that my honeymoon with my congregation may be over. I am nearing my first anniversary in my first pastorate. After our first vacation, I am sure that honeymoon isn't the right term for our relationship. I sense that my posture has shifted to defense and I need to learn how to adapt. There is life after the honeymoon, but it is fraught with danger.

Israel didn't make right choices after it's honeymoon with Yahweh. Their honeymoon was marked with a wilderness misadventure and the death of a generation, but still those were the good times. God was doing amazing things in their midst. He showed his power to them daily, there was no mistaking he is God. Yet they were quick to abandon him, and by the time of Jeremiah, they weren't just unfaithful, they became prostitutes and forgot their husband at home.

"They didn't ask, 'Where is the Lord.'" They didn't even look for him. They stopped recounting the stories from the honeymoon and replaced their Glory with worthlessness, a phantom, a vapor.

Honeymoon or no, I love you my Dear One. Remind me of your presence, I forget reality sometimes. Remind me, remind me.