Identification

The air was damp from the previous night's rainfall, puddles still dotting the concrete slab. Likely a basketball court by day, with its plastic front-row seating and portable sound equipment the surface had been transformed into a gospel crusade stadium by night. Streetlights baptized the space in a faintly supernatural glow.

Standing center stage, the praise band strummed the first haltering notes of "You are God Alone" in Spanish. The youth group girls and I huddled several meters downwind, awaiting the arrival of the Yucatan's locals.

Thoughts quickly turned to absent members of the group and their romantic interests. One girl commented, "I can't believe so many people are hooking up in the youth group. You've got Jim and--"

I interrupted her. "I'm not dating."

The year was 2007: I had been out of high school for just over five years, and two months earlier had graduated college with a brand-new Bachelor's Degree. My father had publicly declared me a full-grown adult that May, though privately I had known since I was twelve. Not an ounce of my flesh wanted to relive my teenage years--and yet there I stood, clearly identifying myself as still part of the youth.

Rosie, one of the chaperones, looked pointedly at me. "And what about Jacob?"

I stared at my shifting feet a moment, a hot blush stinging my cheeks despite the tropical weather. My face turned to look past my left shoulder at the lead guitarist practicing with the band. His voice rose clear and free of accent across the distance.

"I know about Jacob," I quietly whispered into my collar bone, casting my eyes downward once more.

I stood paralyzed. At twenty-three, I was no longer under the restraints of adolescence and yet neither was I free enough to rid myself of them. How many of you are the same?

We've grown up. Many of us have grown up in church. We know all the right answers, the do's and don'ts of dating for Christian girls. We may still be daughters, but we're not little girls anymore. And we can't afford to act like them in our relationships. We know that the cornerstone of our lives is Jesus and that He desires us not to compromise ourselves or our convictions. But if this our foundation, what does the building look like?

God may be in the process of bringing a righteous, godly man your way--and what will you do when he comes? This blog is an attempt to help you answer that question.