I recently subscribed to a magazine called "Relevant" which I just happened to stumble upon online one day and decided that since I never really subscribe to magazines, I'd give this one a shot because it looked like it would be up my alley. It was only after I subscribed but before I had received a magazine that I found out that this little magazine was not a hidden treasure but instead is widely known by the Christian culture known as Kofenya. lol So, I was surprised, both pleasantly and yet not so much, to find out that this magazine is actually quite popular amongst the twentysomethings of the Christian generation. But regardless, it's a pretty cool magazine, and after getting my first one in the mail a few days ago, I am pretty pleased with it. Like any magazine, it's full of marketing ploys, which makes me feel a bit targeted and taken advantage of, but yet.....the marketing is for things that might be "relevant" to my life, so I guess I can't really complain.

Regardless of the constant advertisements for Christian books, CDs, and colleges (and like I said, I do enjoy some of the advertising because I am interested in some of the products), there are some great articles about culture, music, musicians, and faith, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading through them. I wanted to post one article on here because I thought it was good and because it hit me rather hard, but I couldn't find a copy online, so I am just going to type out a piece of it....the part that struck me the most. It's an excellent article titled Longevity, written by Dan Haseltine, the lead singer for Jars of Clay. It's an article about long-lasting relationships (Dan's grandparents specifically), how our "cultural ideas can be poison for relationships," and how we have the tendency become "me, me, me" in relationships. Anyway, here's a little blurb from it that actually made me think for a little while:

"Look at the marriage of Jesus, the one He has been in for eternity, the one with the bride who sleeps around, never listens, disowns, scorns, dishonors, runs away, intentionally proves to be more interested in anything but her husband, is selfish and bears the children of every affair and the scent of every escapade. It was a marriage that killed Jesus. And it was the Gospel that brought Him back to life to love once more. Jesus endures the worst marriage of all. His bride nails Him to a cross, and there are no metaphores to compare His suffering to what we think we endure.

We will continue to search for ways to be apprecaited in our marriages, for ways to be cherished, and if we do not find them, then we leave. Because we are not getting what we want, or feel like we need, our spouse is to blame. We are people who like to move from relationship to relationship, church to church, in search of what fills us, rather than what allows us to fill others. (emphasis mine) But what we think we deserve by way of our cultural cues is quite different from what we do deserve."