In the past 2 weeks I’ve been doing alot of investigating. Not in that creepy, tell me everything about your life kind of way; but learning about the hearts and desires of people I have met lately. I find it extremely intriqueing that almost every time I have a conversation with someone I haven’t seen awhile, or even with people I know very well and meet with on a regular basis, we end up talking about relationships. “So….is there any special someone these days?” or “How’s the husband hunt going?”
I went to a private residential school for my last 2 years of highschool. It’s no different walking those halls or living in those dorms as it is in a public school or frat house. It seems like everyone has someone that their interested in. You’re the odd one out if you don’t. There’s always relationships starting, ending, breaks, and even the long haul (making it through the semester of course). Hey, I was one of those guys. If I wasn’t playing sports (which was pretty much everything a small school had to offer), I was with her.
Yes, even in Christian circles there is the ongoing drama of relationships. Our lives revolve around the opposite sex. Guys base their MANsculinity around girls. Women base their identity and image by the acceptance of guys. People’s days and months are good or bad in result of their relationships status. And we tend to stray so far away from our true selves because our attention on presentation is all we think about. Obviously the Lord created us and named us individually and intimately. It’s written all over scripture. God loves us. He love us alot actually! And it’s no mistake he created us to love as well. We are in fact made in HIS image. We are designed to be in relationship. To experience true intimacy and affection. We are created to love and be loved! We are the fruit of the Lord’s eye. We are that one sheep that He will leave all the rest for to retrieve when we are lost. He takes care of us, he provides absolutely everything we need. He even sent His one and only son Jesus to carry our burdens of sin and divorce from God. To reconcile us to himself, free from all evil. Our lives revolve around relationships, yet we are so far away from the mark.
We worry about finding that someone that we sometimes miss out on our purpose and destiny. We have our hopes and dreams around “the one”. We forget about who we are. The Lord is calling us MEN OF GOD to pursue Himself, not women. He knows that women will fail us, and not be fully what we need. Yet we still chase after them. The Lord is also calling WOMEN OF GOD to be pursued by Him. Not some man who will fail and not be what she had first thought.
When I look at missionaries and other folks in ministry and hear stories of “fast” relationships, I can see why they happen. When someone doesn’t have a relationship in their focus and they are in a place of service to the Lord with all of their heart. Genuinely ALL of their heart, that “special someone” sees him for exactly who he is! That goes vice-versa as well. there is no fluff, no macho thing going on, and chances are the Lord has that person in a place where he or she wouldn’t have chosen to be anyways. A place of dependence and love for the purpose and the call. True love comes out of devotion and direction from the Father first and foremost.
Now maybe I’m wrong and got it all backwards, but I challenge you guys to pursue the Lord with ALL of your heart and watch what happens. Give it a lifetime and look back on it, God isn’t about a few year term or contract; give it every inch of your life and look where he’ll take you. Imagine spending the same amount of time you would spend talking to a girlfriend with the Lord in prayer instead? imagine giving that date money to God and take a homeless man out for breakfast? Give flowers to your mom! And women, allow yourself to be fully pursued by the Lord. When you need someone to listen, speak to Jesus. When you want to be held, allow the lord be with you; not just on a Sunday morning. Want words of love and encouragement? Look to scripture, God is constantly in love with you and the unfathomable thing is that he never waivers from that!
I do believe that the Lord has us men and women in unity, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t think he in mind for us to go to the guy/girl first! We get so caught up in this world, even each other because we can see, touch, and taste one another. But we need to step out and trust this faith we claim to have. If we can’t step out and have Christ as the fruit of our eyes, we’ve missed the point and have started to worship false idols.
It’s about time we focused on the academics and heart of God, not the godly men gauged by their first full beard or the women gauged by the desire to travel and have MK’s in the final months of Bridal College!!
