Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her… (Ephesians 5:25)

I love movies. Some of my favorites are those “One man must save his beloved from a host of evil dudes aaaand a burning building after flinging himself from a jet aircraft and diving to the depths of the Pacific where he battles terrorists and defuses a nuclear bomb with his Leatherman while clad only in cargo shorts and a Costco dad-shirt ” kind of movies. I like to imagine myself in Hero-Dude’s place. I like to think, “Yeah, I’d do that. I’d skydive without a parachute into a flaming skyscraper to save my bride. I’d go mano a mano against a dozen professional bad guys to protect the wife of my heart. I’d eat the bomb in the faint hope that my innards would save her from fiery oblivion. I’d give myself up for her…

But will I clean the kitchen? Or fix the broken desk drawer that she’s been asking about for months? Or stay awake to listen when she’s anxious and needs to talk but I need to be up at 0-dark-thirty and I desperately crave sleep…

You see, the chances are that I will not be called upon to literally die for my wife. If the need arises, I think and hope and pray that I will do so without blinking, but let’s face it–those moments are rare in the life of a middle-school teacher. But there’s more to “giving yourself up” than a one-time sacrifice that the world will see and applaud and turn into a blockbuster film starring a former Green Beret turned actor with significantly better hair and biceps and nostrils than yours.  Yes, Christ went to the Cross for his Beloved, and that was beyond anything we can imagine. But before he went to the Cross, he went to his people and he lived with them and he loved them and he served them. Nothing was beneath Jesus as he demonstrated his love. The Creator of Everything washed feet and played with children and cooked meals and…gave himself.

Can you do that today, Husband? Can you give yourself up for your wife in small ways, unseen and unpraised by the world? You stand ready to make the big sacrifice–will you make the small ones just as readily? Because I promise you this–you may not be called on to leap into danger today, but you will be called on to leap into discomfort.

Will you take the leap?

Happy Monday, Beloved.