From Singled Out

". . . Eugene Peterson provides us with an interesting starting point.  He references John Calvin's commentary on the Psalms when he asserts that "we must develop better and deeper concepts of happiness than those held by the world, which makes a happy life to consist in 'ease, honours, and great wealth.'" For many of us the desire to marry would fall under "ease." While marriage certainly is a lot of hard work (a truth to which all our married friends would attest) and it certainly has its share of trials, most singles think being married would make life easier.  We would have companionship and someone to turn to in a time of need; we would have an outlet for our sexual desires; we wouldn't have to worry about whom to bring to the company Christmas party; we would be accepted by the church.  But is this truly all that God has in store for us?  Peterson writes,

We live in a time when everyone's goal is to be perpetually healthy and constantly happy.  If any one of us fails to live up to the standards that are advertised as normative, we are labeled as a problem to be solved, and a host of well-intentioned people rush to try out various cures on us.  Or we are looked on as an enigma to be unraveled, in which case we are subjected to endless discussions, our lives examined by researchers zealous for the clue that will account for our lack of health or happiness.

Peterson's description of how people often react to those whose lives aren't "normative" and happy sounds remarkably like how the church reacts to those who are not married and even how society at large reacts to those who are not in a romantic relationship."

--pg. 134-135, Singled Out:  Why Celibacy Must Be Reinvented in Today's Church

(I am loving this book!)