I want a date life.

badly.

You're probably thinking, "What on earth has gotten into Michelle!?!?!?" But that's okay, because I totally think that alot. Don't worry, though, my title doesn't mean what you may think it means.

I realized how terribly lacking I am and how much I want a date life after reading a few chapters in the book, "I became a Christian and all I got was this Lousy T-Shirt"*.

You see, the author of this book (Vince Antonucci) writes about when his wife and he first started dating and got married. They had something special- they always wanted to be together. They never got tired of eachother. After work they'd play tennis together and go out to eat together and talk for hours and hours.

After they got married people would ask, "Are you two making sure you have a date night? You have to have a weekly date night!" and they would just laugh behind their backs, because they had a date life.

Then, as time went on and new demands from work and children arose, something happed. He said, "The sense of adventure we once has was being snuffed out by a passionless daily routine. It was all just....disappointing."

After a few years, they realizes things weren't going to "just get better" and they decided to get counseling. The counselor told them that they needed to start doing the things they used to do together- when they had a date life. They needed to make whatever changes they had to so they could start spending quality time together- face to face. It had to be face-to-face.

So, they commited to a weekly date night- focusing on things that would bring them face-to-face. At first, it was awkward, but it gradually gained momentum and soon they once again had a date life.

So what was the point of all this? Vince Antonucci related it the Christian life. He said,

"The Christian life is about living life with Jesus. Living life with Jesus is about abiding in him. To abide means to live within. And so abiding is about living in the presence of: it's about depending on, it's about trusting in, it's about communicating with. To live life with Jesus, I must . . . get my face in front of his face."

He and his wife realized that, "We needed to start having a date night as the foundation upon which we built our date life. A date life was our goal, but a date night was a necessary part of establishing that.

What we're after with God is a life of abiding, a continual state of abiding. But to achieve that I need a concentrated period of abiding at some point in my day."


I want a date life...with Jesus. I want to be continually abiding in him. But more often I'm not! And I think alot of that is due to the fact that I don't always have an established time everday to spend time with Jesus in his word. I've never like the idea of a "quiet time", because it just seems so legalistic, as something to "check off" before getting on with my day, and sometimes it seems like prayer isn't much use. But I think that setting aside a concentrated time of abiding each day is a crucial foundation on which to establish that continual abiding.

Just like the date night was not the goal, it was what they needed to plan in order to get back their date life.

I want a date life. I want to get into the habbit of spending time with Jesus each day, face-to-face. I want to have such a relationship with God that when people remind me to spend time with God each day, I'd just smile, because I spend my entire life with God.

I want a date life. Don't you?





*I want to credit Vince Antonucci with this post, because even when I wasn't quoting him I was paraphrasing him or something! If you ever get a chance to read his book, do so! Seriously.