“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will disappear. Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear. It’s like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything completely, just as God knows me now. There are three things that will endure – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-13
The flowers have been ordered, the DJ has been paid, and our families have traveled from around the world to witness us promise to be together until death. It’s too late to turn back now. It’s too late to throw in the towel. It’s too late to tell her that the love that I once felt for her has been replaced with rage. We pretend to be in love. We pretend to enjoy each other’s company. We pretend to kiss, to embrace, and to like the sight of each other’s face. How did we let it get this far? How did we end up at this place? I should have listened to that inner voice that told me not to trust her. I could have ended it all right then and there before things got so complicated. Now, everyone is here to support us and wish us well, but we both know that what we have can never last. I was never fond of marriage. I was never fond of love. I don’t know what made me fall for her. Her outer beauty was indescribable, but there was nothing on the inside. We had nothing in common. I was weak when she came into my life. I was heartbroken and lonely. Her arms were my protection. Her heartbeat was the symphony that made me want to live again. When I gave her the key to the place that so many have tried to enter I was forever lost. People tried to warn me that I should take things slow. I was so blinded by the mirage of what I thought was love that I simply dismissed their words. They couldn’t feel what I felt. They couldn’t see what I saw. They couldn’t taste the sweet nectar of her being. My thought was that she had been sent from God especially for me. I had been searching for my rib and within her I had found the place that it now called home. I want to run and hide. I want to turn back the hands of time. I want to go back to the day before I ever saw her face. I want to erase from my memory the first time that I uttered those three words- “I Love You”. What is love? What does it really mean? I thought that our love would go on until the end of time. I came to discover that what we had was not love at all. Our decision to consummate a union that had not been approved by God was our first misconception. We used this false promise to prove to ourselves that what we were feeling had to be sent from God. The lustful desires lead us down a path of destruction that neither of us could have predicted from that very first touch. I had the power, the strength, the authority, the ability to abstain from acting out the sinful wishes that ran through my head. Instead, I voluntarily surrendered to them as if there would be no repercussions for my actions. Now I stand here with regrets, fears and nervous energy. I stand before God, my family, and the woman who shares the same thoughts as me. So instead of saying I do to her I say I don’t know to God. I don’t know if I can agree to this merger without feeling like a liar and a thief. I am a liar for pretending to show compassion towards someone that I despise. I am a thief and my crime is for entering into another man’s territory. I can’t undo what I’ve already done, but I can avoid doing what I’m about to do.
The preacher asked the question and as it echoed throughout the sanctuary my eyes met her eyes and our lips ported simultaneously to utter the words that had no place for such an occasion as this.
“I oppose!”
