If bachelor parties (at their best) are celebrations of the past and preparation for a lifetime commitment in the near future, then vocational singles deserve a bachelor party as much as any groom-to-be.

So in July, some of the people who've been instrumental in my journey thus far helped me celebrate and prepare, complete with...

• matching wolf tshirts (yes, I cropped mine)

• mimosa&paint session creating a wolf-howling-at-the-moon scene

• laser tag

• pool day

• dressing up for dinner

• spa day complete with massages, face masks, eye masks, and foot masks

• getting the tattoo for my lifetime commitments (more on that in a future post)

My favorite moment was Friday night when everyone reminisced about the last decade together, reminded me what I've meant to them, and ushered me toward my lifetime commitments with encouragements and blessings.

My bachelor party was another beautiful opportunity to reassure my heart that my commitments to vocational singleness and NFOB are worth celebrating just as much as any marriage.

And the scale of celebration reassures me that God is eager to bless and sustain my commitments and family just as much as any other!

The season of events leading up to a lifetime commitment to marriage seem to be a rite of passage that ensures people understand the gravity of the commitments they're making and blesses them spiritually, emotionally, and materially for the life to come.

If that's the case, why wouldn't those committing to lifetime singleness need just as much preparation and blessing?

Perhaps if our churches started offering that preparation and blessing to celibates, more people would be willing to commit their lives to kingdom work with single-minded, undivided attention...