Some may say, “It’s your choice to be single.” All I can say is, “You are right!” But it is not that simple.

Behind their words I hear a suggestion that the relational garden is ripe for the picking, and I need only stretch out my hand to eat. Thus, if I am hungry it is my own fault. It is a suggestion that on every side the fruit is “good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” (Gen 3:6).

They encourage me to take and eat, ignoring the fact that not every fruit is permissible—not all are beneficial. They offer shallow advice to deeper issues and bring me down. It is my choice, but sometimes it feels like no choice at all.

Today, as singles, “we are legion,” and our numbers are growing. So the happily married bids us marry, thinking it absurd (as I do) that there are so many eligible singles isolated in their sorrows. It seems only logical that all these singles should turn, find a person to their liking, and be joined in blessed union. Nothing would make me happier. But it has not been that easy since the Garden.

Yes, “it is not good” for us to “be alone” (Gen 2:18), but the world is not as it should be—not since the Garden.

I concede that it is a choice to be single—inescapably so. But the words “it’s your choice to be single,” whether intentionally or unintentionally, suggest that the only reason the single is unmarried is because they are simply too picky or too cowardly. It suggests that the person to the left or to the right will do just as well and that to pass them over is tantamount to sin. This I am not willing to concede.

I have prayed to God that He either fulfill the desire or remove it. If you are single by choice and truly have no desire for marriage—bless you. I am not there. Do not judge my weakness, and I will not envy your strength.

Not every single is too picky—some are simply more selective.

Not every single is a coward—some are preparing for greater battles.

It is Paul’s admonition to us to consider more than our own desires when thinking of marriage. “The time is short!” he tells us, and no decision can be made without this concept in mind. All that we do must reflect the greater cause at hand—the coming of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We cannot live as though all were well with the world or as though all will be well if we are just married.

All is not well with the world, not this side of Eden, not this side of heaven. We exist, for now, in a world that is passing away and all our energies, all our decisions are measured by His desire to love the world through us. This alone should make us selective.

And no, all will not be well simply because we are married.