The worst punishment in the world is solitary confinement. 

Confinement in any scenario is difficult, but solitary confinement would have to be the worst. In this season of life, we’ve seen this truth play out over and over again. The people that are most vulnerable are the ones that are by themselves without human interaction. It can be a scary place when you are all by yourself.  

In the COVID-19 world that we live in it is easy to see the importance of relationships now more than ever. We see what different relationships look like and the way they impact our lives. One of the bigger questions to wrestle with is this: 

What is the purpose of the most important relationships? 

Is it happiness? Is it fulfillment? Or is it something more? 

In my latest podcast, I sit down with husband, father, former NFL player, and global content creator Andrew East. In our conversation, Andrew suggests that the biggest gift in any relationship is sanctification. The process of becoming more like Christ. 

Listen to the podcast here. 

The hard part about sanctification is that sanctification is not an easy process. It is refinement, it is ironing sharpening iron, it is going through the hard stuff to get to the good stuff. Tim Keller goes as far as to suggest that marriage’s primary purpose is to prepare us for the new creation that we become as we move towards Christ. 

Said another way; the reason marriage is tough is that if we are doing it right it should push us out of comfort and towards Jesus. 

In a world that now has us sheltered together, working together, teaching our kids together, and basically no escaping each other, it begs the question: What is your spouse teaching you about Jesus in this season? What are your kids teaching you about Jesus? 

It’s easy to look at this as a hardship, and certainly, there is some of that which is true. Maybe, the real key for those who proclaim to follow Christ is looking at this hardship as a gift of holiness. 

Happily ever after might be the biggest misconception of every fairy tale we’ve ever read, instead maybe what we should be saying is holiness ever after.