Who You Should Date After a Hard Break Up

I was having breakfast with a good friend when he told me that he’d just broken up with his girlfriend of several years. It had been a hard few weeks. During this time, he decided to take a break from dating for a while. Instead, he wanted to focus on growing his newfound relationship with Christ. However, he didn’t really know how to do that.

My mind immediately kicked in to my college days. I would have recommended a daily Bible reading, preferably in the morning, praying, getting in a small group, and finding a church that he liked.

He’d probably end up in a singles group too.

As I was thinking about saying something like this, I felt bored. I was getting ready to deliver a canned speech that I gave in college, 40 years ago. And frankly it didn’t seem interesting to me. Yes, I pray and read the Bible, but the way I was going to communicate it was far from engaging.

Instead, I blurted out, “I think you need to date Jesus.”

“What?” he asked with a look on his face that was mostly shock laced with a bit of curiosity. “I said I think you need to date Jesus.”

And then we both burst out laughing.

It really did sound absurd and bordering on the sacrilegious.

“What does that mean?” he asked. “I have no idea,” I replied, “But it certainly sounded better than the formula I was going to give you.”

We really didn’t talk about it much more during breakfast, except now and then we chuckled, “Dating Jesus?” and went on with breakfast.

Those words have been haunting me since. Something seemed right about it, but I’ve never thought about getting to know Jesus like that. But if you think about it…

He’d be an amazing date.

1) If you hurt his feelings, he’d forgive you.

2) If you walked away, he’d pursue you.

3) He wouldn’t get angry with you unless you acted like a Pharisee, said something bad about his Dad, or sold sacrificial goats and sheep in the church narthex.

4) He loved to party – weddings and feasts were his favorite – and he made delicious, strong wine when the hosts ran out. How cool is that?

5) And Valentine’s Day would be a cinch. He’d love anything you bought him and any plans you made!

Photo Credit: Mikaela Hamilton

One of the first things I read when I came to faith was a little booklet called My Heart Christ’s Home. In it, a new believer invites Jesus to come home with him and showed him his house. When he did so, he realized that there were some places that Jesus felt comfortable and some places where he felt awkward.

The boy’s desire was for Jesus, his date if you will, to feel at home there and so he began the process of fixing up the place. In the process, he had to clean out an old closet that contained some stuff that he’d hidden away.

And some relationships had to go as well.

I wonder if that’s what dating Jesus looks like. Inviting him into your familiar haunts, listening to him, watching his eyes, and creating a place where he would feel at home.

So forget the online dating stuff. Dating Jesus will be a much better story.

Who You Should Date After a Hard Break Up is a post from: Storyline Blog