Checking out,

I notice the headlines on the supermarket tabloids, and I wonder at the useless information I carry inside my head.

I know how many days Kim Kardashian was married, even though I couldn’t pick her out of a lineup.

I can name 3 of Madonna’s exes without looking:  Guy Ritchie, Sean Penn, and Warren Beatty. Oh, and Dennis Rodman. There’s four. WHY DO I KNOW THIS?

I check online and discover that Russel Brand and Katy Perry are getting divorced.  Another couple? It’s almost like an epidemic. We see it so often we can become desensitized to it. But that would be a mistake.

I have to believe that there aren’t many people in this world — including celebrities, who take something like divorce lightly. Often there are children involved. Real emotions. Pain. Divorce is not something to be taken trivially.

Divorce is the dissolution of a covenant, and God is big on covenants. God has made the same covenant with us, time and time again throughout history. God will be our God, and we will be God’s people. And in all that time, even when we failed to uphold our part of the bargain, God has stayed with us. Through thick and thin.

Apparently, that’s something Russel and Katy weren’t able or willing to do for each other.

I actually feel for them, and all celebrities, who have their dirty laundry aired for all to see. I suppose some thrive on the publicity, but brokenness is brokenness, no matter who is involved. A failed marriage covenant is not water cooler material. It’s a reason for real sadness.

But it’s not the end of love.

You know people who are divorcing, or have long since been divorced. Maybe you’re one of those people. I believe that even when a couple cannot continue in marriage, God is working to move all those involved towards wholeness. Russel, Katy, Guy, Madonna, even Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, they all have the benefit of God’s unending love to move them in healthier directions.

Of course, that’s not the story the tabloids are telling. They speak of prenups, and affairs, and scandal, and hurt. For some reason, that’s the stuff so many of us want to read about.

But next time you’re 5th in line at the store, and you read about the latest celebrity break up, remember this:

God keeps Checking In,

Even when we find ourselves in the sad position of

Checking Out.

Have a Great Week,

Mitch