When people have broken the trust in a relationship beyond repair, there is nothing better to do than to leave and move on.
So said Dr. Paul Tripp about the predicament being faced by his friend and fellow pastor Tullian Tchividjian, the grandson of Billy Graham, who just filed for a divorce from his wife Kim.
"Sadly, there are times in this broken world where things that have been damaged by sin don't get put together again. So, we groan, reminded that sin still lives inside us, that we live in a shattered world and that God's work of redemption is not yet complete," he wrote on his website. "It has been with sadness that I, along with others, have come slowly and cautiously to the conclusion that his marriage is irreparably broken."
Kim was actually the first to commit adultery, according to Tullian. When he found this out, he said the news broke him so much that he sought comfort from a friend, and they later engaged in an adulterous affair as well. When the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church confronted Tullian about it, he confessed and was forced to step down from his position.
He sought "intense" counselling with Tripp after that, and he even actively posted updates about his recovery on his Facebook page, saying that Christianity is "good news for bad people coping with their failure to be good."
Even though both Tripp and Tullian "hoped and prayed" that divorce would not happen, they could not deny that it was the embattled pastor's best option.
"From the point of Tullian's confession and repentance, he has been committed to dealing with the issues of his heart and to restoring his marriage. Much grace, counsel, thought, prayer and action has been invested over a six-month period of time with the hope of healing the marriage, but sadly, there are times when the trust is so deeply broken and patterns so set in place that it seems best to recognise that brokenness, cry out for God's grace, mourn, commit to forgiveness, rest in the truths of the gospel and with a grieved heart, move on," Tripp said.
