Richard Morley recounts how God spoke to him about his marriage
When I have the chance to speak to people about Christ, I try to tell of actual events in my own life that point to the existence of God.
This is a true story about how God spoke to me about my marriage.
I was married in 1972 in an Anglican church in Twickenham, near London, and during the ceremony the vicar said: ‘God has given this woman to you, to love, cherish and care for until the end of your days.’
A couple of years later in 1974 my wife and I moved to South Africa where I had employment.
Stormy patch
All went well for a number of years, but then in the middle-Eighties our marriage went through a stormy patch and I began to wonder whether our union would last. Many marriages go through such difficulties.
Circumstances came to a head one particular night and I went to bed thinking that if things were the same when I returned from work on the following evening, then I would pack a bag and book into a local hotel. It was an uncomfortable night during which I slept very fitfully.
The radio-alarm
Now at that time I had to begin work early each morning some 25 miles away, and to achieve this I was in the habit of setting my bedside radio-alarm so that I would awake to a five-minute programme entitled Thought for the Day, presented on a regular basis by a pastor or a priest.
Just picture my complete surprise when next morning the radio-alarm went off and the presenter opened with these words … ‘Today, I’d like to talk to you about marriage; and if you’re a man I’d like to remind you that in marriage God gives a woman to you, to love, cherish and care for’.
Astonished and transfixed, I stared at the radio wide-eyed with my mouth half-open as I listened to the memorable Welsh voice of the man who was speaking. I was hardly breathing and the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck. It seemed as if God was bringing his message on marriage directly to me via the programme presenter.
A thoughtful day at work
For the remainder of the day, I thought about little else, and I have no idea of how well I performed my duties at work, but suffice to say that upon returning home, I did not pack a bag, or book into an hotel for the night. And I am pleased to inform you that recently my wife and I celebrated 46 years of marriage.
But, there’s more to tell …
Colleague’s funeral
Some two years or so after the radio broadcast, a work colleague passed away, and I went along to a Remembrance Service in a church situated about three miles from my workplace.
As the service began, I immediately recognised the voice of the pastor as that featured in the radio broadcast. It was that same wonderful Welsh accent.
When the service concluded, the congregation filed through to the adjacent church hall for tea and biscuits.
The pastor circulated amongst the gathering, talking firstly to the relatives of the deceased, then his friends, and finally others.
The pastor in front of me
I was standing with a cup of tea in my hand, when I looked up to see the pastor in front of me. He said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know your name. I don’t think that we’ve ever met’. In reply, I introduced myself and said something like: ‘We haven’t met, but I have to tell you that you’ve played a very important part in my life!’
He peered at me with a puzzled look on his face … and I then told him of the events prior to, and following, his Thought for the Day broadcast on marriage. He still looked puzzled and then, some moments later, he smiled broadly, as recollection began to dawn on him.
The pastor’s story
‘I have to tell you,’ he said, ‘that I wasn’t scheduled to talk about marriage that day; but when I arrived at the broadcasting studio after a 30-mile drive from my house, I realised to my horror that I’d left my preparatory notes on the hall table at home.
‘I have to say that I’m a highly organised person, and nothing like that had ever happened to me before: It was so completely out of character. Panic set in, but I did what any minister would do. I found a quiet corner and prayed to the Lord for guidance … and as soon as I’d finished praying, a solution came to me.
Yesterday’s sermon
‘Only the day before, I’d delivered a 30-minute sermon from the pulpit on the subject of marriage, and that experience was still fresh in my mind.
‘I’d been broadcasting for many years, perhaps 30 or more, and I knew with certainty that I could deliver a five-minute broadcast from my assembled thoughts … and so it was that you received on that day, completely unplanned, God’s word on the subject of marriage.’
The God of the Bible is the God who is actually there. I know this, not just through reasoning, but through experience. And through the Lord Jesus Christ, as we repent of our sins and open our hearts to him, trusting what Jesus did for sinners on the cross, he really does come into our lives.
