Wrinkle Free Relationships

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

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"Wrinkle Free Relationship"
When I met Rex, I believe I had a lot of assumptions about how perfectly things would unfold, that our commitment and desire to seek Christ in ourselves and one another would somehow smooth the path, free of wrinkles, before us.

My relationship history was mediocre at best, mottled with a wake of people I wanted to believe the best in. I reasoned that they would be the "right" one because they offered me many things: gifts, dinners, the famed rolex and .20 gauge youth model Beretta shotgun, a lifestyle of travel, a lifestyle of freedom, a lifestyle of carefreelessness.

In 34 years, none of those "right" ones came to the table. Each one fell: wrong, wrong, wrong.

It was only when I turned inward, when I focused on filling the statement "if ______ then God" that in strolled Rex. The way is simple from now on, right?

"Questionable Relationships"
Just because you enter into the most magical, amazing relationship doesn't mean the enemy's assaults cease to come at you. Suddenly, 10 weeks into this walk on a cloud (Rex will snort when he reads that), God allowed me to stand and take heed, lest I fall.

In the lobby of a hotel at a conference, a young guy approached me with the typical "who, what, where" line of questioning that I assume would have gone in the direction of dinner or a continued pursuit, had I encouraged it to. I shut him down quickly and I made a mental note to myself and prayed:  I was beginning to see that just because I had found Rex, it didn't prevent others from finding ME.

The enemy's assault began that weekend: text messages, voicemails, the contact was ceaseless. The inventory of relationships that I had not really shut the door on began to rear their heads: the airline pilot from Seattle that I hadn't heard from in over a year? Voicemail. The firefighter I once randomly kissed? Text message. The ex-boyfriend oil man from north Houston? Just letting me know he was thinking about me. It was almost comical! I kept picking up the phone to greet message, after email,  after voicemail of my past, presenting me with a choice: to respond or to delete.

A conscious decision had to be made: eliminate the questionable relationships. You see, I believe that God provides that off-ramp, He makes way the escape from temptation. As you move closer and closer to the temptation, however, the speed picks up and the scenery blurs, the ramp is harder to take and you begin to swerve, make last minute judgment calls, take risks that you know you shouldn't take. You can miss the off ramp - which means a complete detour, complication or even missing the destination you were intended for.

God IS faithful and He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle. But we have to look for the exit signs and take the off ramp before the temptation ever reaches our phone.