The Spirit of dating

      You might think that a 61 year old man would have quite a difficult time remembering what it was like to date. For a man that only came out at the age of 50, dating really was not so long ago. Many people who date get tired of it. Meeting people over and over, all seemingly with some variation of the same story. It gets tiresome. I didn't get tired of dating and it certainly wasn't a burden. I looked at it as an adventure. Getting to meet all sorts of different people, hear their stories, respecting and exploring seemed like fun. While dating for me was fun, I did meet that one person that made everything seem different. He was 'the one' for me, he is now my husband and his presence has made all the difference. I suppose if you went through this process for years it might get tiring. If you go through the process for years though, I think one might want to look more inward for some answers as to why the process was becoming burdensomely long. 

      When things repeatedly do not work out, you have to ask yourself about the process, what exactly you are looking for and what you yourself are bringing to the table. Perhaps it is something more material or shallow. That is not the basis for a real relationship, certainly not one that cooperates and elevates the true essence of either party. A real 'marriage' of two different people elevates, cooperates and actually creates something bigger and better than the two alone. When you meet that person, generally I think you know it. Maybe love at first sight, maybe it's that heady feeling that a person fully engaged and alive feels. It's intoxicating in effect.

      This is how I feel about this reading today. The Spirit to which we attest, that we see in love and feel and know about as real as the invisible air we breath, is very similar to that intoxicating feeling of love. Perhaps it is after all, actually one in the same. The Spirit which we receive in faith, in God, is one that cooperates, elevates and perfects not the materiality and worldliness of our existence but the essence of our being. Who we are in our essence and in our our totality. 

       The Spirit of love, the Spirit of God is ever present in our world. We can be creatures of the world, Madison avenue and all that superficial stuff. But like finding the perfect mate, sharing the intimacies of our beings, we are elevated by acknowledging and reveling in our own uniqueness. The recognition and revelation of us as spirit and material lets us know with intoxicating love that we are beautiful and lovable creations of God.

  

      

Romans 8:12-17

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.