Stop playing the field

I saw this cute little post the other day on Facebook and thought you might enjoy it:   Dating tip...Run as fast toward God as you can and if someone keeps up, introduce yourself.(GodFruits.tv)  Kind of profound in a way because most of us simply run toward the one we want to date rather than running toward the one who actually can help us find the right one to date!  My pastor says something similar to us singles all the time - become the kind of person you want in a mate and you will attract that kind of person as a mate.  The message is similar - who we choose to pursue so much so as to actually make a heart attachment to will determine the rest of our course in life.  Who we become in that relationship with another human being isn't the other person's "fault", it is an outcome of us pursuing another person rather than us pursuing God with all our heart, soul, and mind.

Don’t fall in love with this corrupt world or worship the things it can offer. Those who love its corrupt ways don’t have the Father’s love living within them. All the things the world can offer to you—the allure of pleasure, the passion to have things, and the pompous sense of superiority—do not come from the Father. These are the rotten fruits of this world. (I John 15-16 VOICE)

The reason we are to follow God first and foremost is this idea of becoming so much like the one we set our focus toward.  If we are following him closely, so as to really understand his grace and mercy in our lives, we will have a change of heart, mind, and soul.  We will desire less of what the fleshly soul desires - things which please only us - and will begin to desire the things he does.  If you have seen people who have been a "couple" for a long time, what seems to happen in their lives?  Don't they develop a lot of the same mannerisms?  They almost becoming "matching bookends", so to speak.  Now, if the one we focus on first is what can help us to become the person we are intended to be, then we become a "matching bookend" in a pretty awesome sense.

We "fall in love" with some pretty questionable things in this life, don't we?  I think this whole wording of "falling in love" should give us a clue as to the lack of reliability with this whole concept!  I don't know about you, but falling suggests to me a downward descent! It almost has the idea of being "tripped up" so as to stumble head-long into some situation. I have fallen a few times in the natural sense - usually because I was not looking squarely in the direction I was traveling!  After having my knee replaced, whenever I do this, simply because my "footing" isn't as trusty as it used to be, I can almost stumble a little easier.  If we are to avoid "falls" in life, we need eyes forward, fully focused, and attentiveness to our surroundings!

I did a thesaurus search for the word "falling" and do you know some of the terms it returned?  Words like collapsing, decreasing, sliding, weakening, diminishing, and slipping. Now, take each one of these and use them to describe what happens when we get our eyes on anything other than Jesus first in our lives.  

• We collapse under the weight of the worries this brings simply because we weren't meant to figure everything out on our own.  
• We decrease in our capacity and capability to endure threats which come our way simply because we don't have our eyes fully fixed on our best defense!  
• We find ourselves slipping slowly into patterns of behavior which are not that all that honoring of the way of life we should be living.
• We are weakened in our response to resist those things which comes as a temptation into our lives simply because we have our eyes more focused on them than on Jesus.
• We find our power and purpose diminishing because anything which distracts us really robs us of our right placement in life as alongside the ruler of the universe.
• We slip into ways of acting or responding which are just not that noble, trustworthy, or grace-filled because we forget who is the most trusted foundations of our lives.

Now, if this doesn't show us how important it is to keep ourselves in a place where we avoid "falling for" anything or anyone, then I don't know what will.  As we learn to pursue the right person in our lives, then we find ourselves being built up, changed in character and likeness to the one we are pursuing, and enticing to those who are in pursuit of the same things in this life.  We are focused on becoming - not enticing.  The one who is drawn to us is really being drawn to Jesus in us.  Doesn't that sound a whole lot better than just taking your chances on what or who you may find by simply "playing the field" in any sense in your life? Just asking.