I Preferred Dating Scorpios…not Christians! (ELS)

At the end of 2008, as I got a little closer to D and J from church, they began to give me their personal experiences with dating and expressed how it evolved as they got older—and more importantly got closer to Christ. As 2009 has begun to unveil its mystery, I have seen a shift in my own preferences.

In early January I went on a date with a young lady who was very pretty, intelligent and bohemian—you know the artsy, free spirit that shops at Urban Outfitters type. Anyway, My date is a great girl but personally I think our date came to a halt when I slightly mentioned the importance of my faith. It started when I asked her about any New Year’s resolution that she may have for 2009. She responded in a happy-go-lucky fashion in her explanation of her concept of yearly themes. For her 2007 was the year to “Go Balls Out (I couldn’t make this stuff up if I wanted to),” while 2008 was the “Year of No Regrets.”

Her 2009 theme was so quintessential “Urban Outfitters-esque” that I almost choked on my wine. She stated that 2009 was the year coined, “GET SOME!” Initially I thought this was another opportunity of sexual conquest for me but after I stopped laughing she assured me that her theme was not a sexual innuendo—which came as a disappointment to a part of me.

Then she asked me, “Earnest what’s your New Year’s Resolution?” So I responded by explaining my theme of “2009: The Year of Preparation.” And as I began to elaborate on my vision, I started thinking to myself E don’t expose too much because she might think you are crazy! However, the more I talked about becoming a “relationship investor” rather than a relationship consumer coupled with my desire for 2009 to be a year in which I walk in authority (purposely leaving out where my authority comes from) and refuse to allow fear, doubt or worry to keep my prisoner.

Even after my elaborate description she surprisingly seemed interested—so then I became confident and exposed a little bit more insight concerning my goals for 2009. I told her that my main goal was getting closer to God and that’s when I lost her. She then went into typical hyper-intellectualized defensive response to someone (she was surprised) who was Christian. It was a speech that I had known to well thanks to my experiences at Columbia. The basic undertones of the “Intellectual Response to Religion” speech was one that shows some minimal respect to others views on the universe but ultimately argues true intellect and religious are mutually exclusive traits. And once again, just as in college, I felt I was there on dismissed and thrown in characterization with the religious-right.

We had a great time but unfortunately I think those moments of the date broke any initial connection we might have had. The quote that I will always associate this date with is the following: “I wouldn’t associate myself with a specific religion but I consider myself spiritual (what the hell does spiritual mean…is this side note I’m typing a spiritual experience?)

So I guess God has placed some type of shift in my preferences. This will be a learning experience because I’ve never sought out to include a pre-requisite of attempting a walk with Christ for one I’m interested in dating. But 2009 is a new year full of new thing.