I had a DATE!!! With a man we will call Pat.... Pat and I met on a dating website (yes I am on a dating website, but will NOT be much longer)... Pat is 42 (yes I know that is too "old" for me, but age is really just a #) and he has a 10 year old son from a previous marriage that ended a few years ago.....
We have been talking for a while now and I thought I had pre-screened him pretty well. He seemed to be fun, sarcastic, and very intelligent.
The only concern I had was his view on "religion"......His belief is that religions are crap. He thinks that religious people are nothing but lemmings, just following the flow over a cliff. He believes in questioning everything, and I really do mean EVERYTHING!!! (I didn't realize how bad it was until today though)
We met at Penn Station, he lives in Long Island, so I figured that would be the easiest, and a good excuse to head into the city. The whole way up I had a knot in my stomach. I wasn't worried about meeting him. I was worried about whether or not I would be able to defend my faith if the topic came up.... I prayed the whole train ride. I prayed for strength, clarity of mind, and knowledge.
I will be the first one to say that I don't know everything; I don't even know most things about the Bible. BUT, I do know that I believe in God; Jesus was the only Son of God (and was man and God at the same time); Jesus suffered and gave up his pure life to pay the price of my sins so that I can have a relationship with God; and the Bible is the word of the Lord, so above all I want to know the Bible and follow the teachings in the Bible.
Right off the bat when we met, the Lord gave me the strength to stand up and not back down on my point of view. He was very judgmental of everyone around him. Then we walked over to Central Park, talking a little bit along the way. He looked at the tattoo on my foot:
and said "Do you want to explain that?" I explained that it is the first part of John 14:6 in the original Greek and that it translates to mean "I am the way, and the truth, and the life". The response I got was unexpected. He asked why.... I gave my standard response that I like having the constant reminder of what is really important in life, and where I need to keep my focus.... His response was why.. We went back and forth for at least 15 blocks with the answer & why talk, all stemming from my tattoo. Finally when it became obvious that no quality or quantity of answers would stop the whys I asked a question.....
"If you are so against religion, don't believe in the Bible, and that only morons who don't think have faith, then why are you asking all these questions?"
"Because I like knowledge for the sake of knowledge"
After walking around the park for a little bit, it started rain, so we took shelter under a tree.....
It was there that I sat on a bench and watched Central Park go by in the rain. I watched people go by under umbrellas; watched was the rain dripped off the leaves and poured down through the holes in the canopy of leaves. It was beautiful, a break of pure God given beauty and majesty in the middle of midtown Manhattan!
During this break in the walking we got to talking about the difference between our views. Pat explained that he has a hunger to know EVERYTHING. When I asked why the answer I got was "it makes me feel better". He asked why I don't want to know everything.
And it was then; in the rain that it truly hit me. I DON'T want to know everything, because I don't NEED to know everything. The Lord provides me with all that I need. And I can take shelter in my knowledge that if there is something I need to know I will know it. I find peace in being able to see the beauty in the life that the Lord has placed about me. I don't need to know where the water evaporated from that created to the rain in order to appreciate its beauty and splendor.
I told him all of this and he told me that he envied my simpleton mindset!!
It was then that it was time to head back. On the walk back the wind picked up and the rain continued. I was cold, and I was wet, but I was warm on the inside. We made it back to Penn Station and parted ways.
On the way home on the train, I said a prayer; a prayer of thanks and praise. The Lord has allowed me to have a relationship with him, and he has allowed me to grow in my knowledge of him and his love and grace. He has blessed me with the strength to say that I want him to be the center of my world. I want a man who accepts the Lord and who also has a relationship with the Lord!!
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