DAY 2

Something that’s important to me in a potential partner is that they have been in New York for at least a few years. I haven’t always stuck to this rule and I really wish I had. This rule isn’t actually about the city itself at all - the underlying thing I’m looking for is how they handle change, newness, and opposition to their faith.

People come to the city and are confronted with more challenges, people, and belief systems than ever before. They must settle into new work environments, new friendship dynamics, a new church culture, a new political landscape, etc. Inevitably, something about their faith will come into conflict with all this newness they’re experiencing. When that dissonance presents itself, a choice must be made. Which will get shaken up: their faith or the other thing? Will it be their political views or their faith that’s shaken? Will it be their expectations of what church “should be” or their faith that’s shaken? Will it be their false sense of self or their faith that is shaken? Will it be their belief in a transactional God or the God of the Bible that’s shaken?

Ultimately, whenever anything in our lives feels like it’s in dissonance with God’s Word, God’s Word must remain the standard and the other thing must be what gets shaken up. And this doesn’t have to mean a complete 180 change. Sometimes we realize that we have had a wrong interpretation of the Word, which has given us a wrong interpretation of the world, and that is what must be shaken up in order to become aligned with God’s Truth. We are called to be people who stand unshaken on the Word. But you cannot stand unshaken on the Word if you don’t know what it says. And you won’t magically come to learn what it says without disciplined reading of it.

So really, that brief peek into my dating standards was really just a bait-and-switch to land here: Become biblically literate (which is a much different statement than to simply say “read the Bible”). If you find yourself in need of help knowing how to read the Bible, befriend a local pastor. I really do mean to be a friend and I really do mean local. Be a friend, not just someone who sporadically texts a prayer request when in crisis. Prioritize community with local believers over keeping up with your favorite celebrity pastor who doesn’t know your name. Evaluate everything and everyone according to God’s truth.

We must not mold the Word to fit our lives, but mold our lives to align with the Word.