I am dating again, after many years of avoiding men. I don’t blame it on men, it was my fault. I was like the Nazi in “Indiana Jones” TM who picked the shiny, pretty chalice that looked great on the outside, but when he drank its water it destroyed him. Now my quest is to “Choose wisely” like Indiana Jones and find a man whose insides will nourish me and not burn me up into a smoldering pile of ashes.
Problem was, I couldn’t see the inside of a man. Well, more accurately, I did see the inside but I ignored those infamous red flags. I wanted it to work so I just swept those little pesky danger signals under the rug and sailed along mindlessly. Until the meltdown, of course.
But I watched the “The Thing” the other night, remember that old 80’s movie? A prehistoric monster is unearthed that kills people, morphs into the person it just ate, then walks around the regular humans until the time is right and then POW, it explodes out and munches a new person. Really gross, here’s a clip. But Kurt Russell is in it, in his prime (even though he had a beard, darn.)
Anyway, God gives us truth in weird ways and he spoke to me through that movie about my dating life. (He speaks to me a lot through movies; I love them, so he uses them to teach me.) The cool thing I’m realizing is that the Holy Spirit is a “Thing” detector. I’ll go out on a date with a guy and he’ll seem perfectly normal, nice, friendly, complimentary, and I think, hey, this could work! But at some point, something shifts within me…my “Thing” detector has switched on and is humming inside me. I am uncomfortable with my date, things don’t seem right, something is wrong. What?! Everything was going so well!
But when I honestly look back on our conversations, I realize I have been doing some danger signal sweeping. Bad girl! I have avoided looking at the differences in our values, spiritual lives, callings, all the things I’ve said I must have in a future husband. Before I knew God, I could ignore those things and still enjoy the relationship. But not now, no way. My “Thing” Detector will not allow it because he’s protecting me from future pain. I have to stop dating the guy because he makes me so uncomfortable that I can’t stand to be around him.
Sometimes we avoid truth because if we see it, we must change. Acts 26:10-14 shows that the Apostle Paul did just that. He was running around killing Christians and hating Jesus, but when the Lord finally knocked him off his horse and blinded him to get his attention, He asked him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” A goad is something that drives us, urges us, and pokes at us to change. Paul had been ignoring the Holy Spirit who wouldn’t leave him alone and kept telling him, “Dude, you’re screwing up. Stop it!”
From now on, when my Detector starts rumbling, I’m listening and changing. Hope you do, too 🙂
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