The nonny enticement finale

On Friday night I went to a party, and as it was a surprise the actual birthday girl and her family weren’t there when I arrived, so as I walked into the room, at first glance the only person I could see that I recognised was ignus fatuus, the last guy to ask me anywhere (for the back story on this see here and here – I think I called him Rochester in the posts, but ignus fatuus he will always be). He’s taller than most so quite obvious in a crowd, and I soon did pick out some comparatively shorter familiar faces. But what amazed me about it all was just how fine this was. I have actually bumped into him a couple of times since that turmoil, and it has always been quite fine, and so when I had the thought a few days before that he would be at that party I knew/hoped it would also be fine. We chatted, and he was engaging and gentlemanly as always, and was there with an old (female) friend (because I’ve noticed that that’s what non-Christians do when invited to something like a party – they take someone along – it’s only us single Christians who go everywhere by ourselves) and I talked to her too – and it was all just fine.

So the night was just yet another lesson to me in the fact that things can seem really hard to let go of in the moment, but time passes and you may look back and wonder what it was you were trying to grab hold of, and only thank God that he didn’t let you have it. Hard as all that felt at the time, I knew deep down that had I started a relationship with that fellow, I would have only got two weeks into it and wondered what in the world I was doing, because how could I possibly share my life with someone who didn’t share my faith – and seeing him now just makes that all too clear, nice as he is. And I was also thankful that somehow I managed to conduct myself with enough sincerity (by the grace of God, and also under the watchful eye of my friends who would be at me if I made one false move) that ignus fatuus seems to understand what that was, bears me no ill will and is my friend, and that when all is said and done I have nothing to regret.

So, I came away from that party just thanking God. Sure, I would love to have someone to go to go to parties with, and everywhere basically, and share my life (and I appreciated this post from Amy on that point), and there could have been good times to be had with him, and maybe a family, which is a fading dream, but doing it that way would ultimately and definitely not be worth it.

So, here’s a song, which we sang at Engage this year, which I encourage (and sometimes console) myself with (excuse the cheesy pictures in the visual, but you get the lyrics).