WE ARE ENGAGED--AGAIN!!!

I remember when Stephen and I started dating.

On our very first date, we got in my car and drove around for four solid hours, talking. We talked about EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING. Everything the magazines tell you NOT to talk about on a first date:

Why are you single?
Do you want kids?
Are you called to ministry?
How well acquainted are you with the Bible? With the Hymns?
How committed are you to missions?
What is your idea about politics?

We talked about it all. And during that date, there was a point when I wondered if he had read my Myspace (the social media site of choice back in those days!) backward and forward so he knew what I wanted to hear.

But I realized much of what he was saying was not even addressed on my Myspace page.

I know this sounds cliche, but...

We just clicked.

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We met at the end of November. Didn't start dating seriously until Christmas. He asked me to marry him in February of the next year.

I can't express the feelings I had when he got down on one knee, center stage at the outdoor theatre at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and asked me to marry him.

Honestly, my mind was racing...I didn't hear much of what he said at all!

And then there was the pause after what I thought was, "Will you marry me?"

And I said, "Yes. Yes, of course!"

And that was that. We were engaged to be married!

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Honestly, it was strange. I had waited in great anticipation of that moment, for him to ask me to marry him.

Even though it had only been three months, I just knew that HE WAS THE ONE. I just KNEW it was going to be him. What I didn't know was how long we would date, how long we would be engaged, when we would actually get married.

We had done all of the dating things people do: movies, coffee, late night phone calls, gifts, church visits, family visits, heart-to-heart conversations.

In February, he asked me to marry him, and I realized that we were going to be married soon--within the year.

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I think I actually spent 10 or so minutes relishing the moment when he asked me to marry him.

Looking back, I think it's so odd how my mind went into overdrive. It was like IMMEDIATELY, I felt the need to plan the wedding, to get everything right! I don't know if that's a "woman thing to do," but it was really an overpowering instinct!

So I started preparing. Planning. Budgeting. Figuring. I could think of nothing else. Seriously.

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Why am I including this story in my "Beyond Project Gideon" blog?

Because when we learned where God was calling us in the next few years, when we were given DIRECTION for our dreams, our mission, our calling, it felt like I was getting engaged again.

We went from just thinking and day-dreaming about the dream and THAT LEVEL OF SERVICE to actually receiving direction for it, confirmation for the call. We went from phone calls and gifts and long conversations to the moment when the proposition is made and received and welcomed.

I felt ENGAGED--again.

So now, my head is spinning, not unlike after Stephen asked me to marry him.

What God has directed us to do will most certainly require a level of COMMITMENT not unlike that between Stephen and me.

So I begin preparing. Planning. Budgeting. Figuring.

It's coming, you know. It's on its way now.