Tenth Avenue North | 6 years ago

Mike explains the meaning behind the song "Covenant" from the forthcoming album, The Things We've Been Afraid To Say.

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"Our new song covenant is about staying faithful to the promise that you make to
your spouse. My wife and I have been married for 10 years now- 10 glorious years. We have four daughters. Yes I have four girls, and having four girls is wonderful. It just means someone's always crying, and it's usually me. No, I'm not praying for a boy. I find that the Lord gives girls to a family that already has a man.
In that 10 years of marriage my wife and I have encountered our fair share of surprises - some good, some not so good
One of those not-so-good surprises is, pretty early on we were confounded when we realized that we were still able to be attracted to other people, which really blew my mind, because when I imagine getting married, I imagine my wife flying in on a white horse from heaven and totally completing me. So, when I still
found my desire for her lacking, it really threw me.
Some of you it's throwing you right now, me saying this. Some of you have never been married or maybe you just got married, and you're leaning forward in your chair going “This guy's speaking heresy. No, I'd be on my full-name - I'll never be attracted to
anyone else. You're crazy town.”
Those of you that have been married for a considerable amount of time might be chuckling to yourself, leaning back in your chair going, “yeah, of course”. I know this sounds crazy, but to avoid setting yourself up for failure in marriage, you need to realize that the propensity to be attracted to someone else is always gonna be there.
Now, let me explain why I think that's beautiful. That's beautiful because it means now your choice actually means something, right? Like if you made your vows standing in front of the altar, “I'm gonna promise to love you forever”, but there was never going to be the possibility that you would ever be attracted to anyone, then that promise is superfluous; it's meaningless. Why make it? You don't need it!
I've found over 10 years of marriage that my feelings needed truth to wrap around. Which is very different than what our culture said. Our culture says, “hey, listen this is what you feel and truth needs to wrap around you”. That's not what marriage was meant to be. See, marriage was not meant to just make us happy, like, whatever I'm feeling marriage is supposed to make me feel that. Marriage is supposed to expand you, not fulfill you. See, it expands what your life is about. Ephesians 5 puts it this way, it says: “when you marry each other, and you stay committed to each other in a in a loving, serving way, you actually reflect a mystery greater than yourself”.
When I choose my wife, even though I could go run and find feelings somewhere else, it magnifies the way Christ loves the church, who, although He's given plenty of reason to walk out on us, He says: “I will be faithful even when she is faithless.”
This actually helps me understand why in the Old Testament, God says, “I hate divorce” He's not trying to get down on divorce, people saying, “how dare you dirty sinner!”. No, He's saying, “hey guys, I just want you to know that I hate that. I would never divorce my people”.
So, this gives me like new inspiration.Oh, there's a bigger reason to stay married to my wife than just whether or not I'm feeling it. When I stay together with her, and I keep serving her, and I keep loving her even when my feelings are doing this, when they're fluctuating, I give Testament to the greater mystery - that Christ will never walk out on me. So, young couples, old couples, recently married, been married a long time, I hope this just reinvigorates why we keep this promise, because this thing - this covenant - it's bigger than you."

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