Remember the story of the guy who ran away from me on a date? If you don’t, check it out here.

Wait, there’s more!!

That guy challenged me in many ways. First, he showed me what hard choices, a desire for holiness, and putting God before himself looked like. He also set a new standard for what I was looking for in a man. I began to think, if I want a guy like that, what kind of woman would a guy like that choose?!  What kind of woman am I? At the time, I was not one who could stand confidently next to someone like that.

Anyhow, he also opened my eyes to the idea of seminary. He had spent the past 20 years of his life in military service and after he retired, he was getting his masters degree from seminary. Now that I write it down, I see the crazy similarities! I was coming to the end of my 20 year career as an actor and, thanks to his example, began to pray about and pursue a seminary education. Seriously I just put that together! The Lord is crazy!

Ok, moving on to how he came back. I spent that summer abroad. The theatre company I worked for took a show to England, and when we were done, I decided that Jesus and I would go on a date to Greece.

It was glorious. A week in Greece with Jesus.

While I was there, I was also finalizing my application for seminary, which I was hoping to begin shortly after I returned from my travels. I felt the need to reach out to, let’s call him “the runner.” I wanted him to know how he, in that brief encounter, had radically changed my life. Since that fateful day on the beach, my divorce was almost final, I had decided to attend seminary, and I had learned so much about myself and the Lord. I felt like the runner needed to know that. Ok, and if I am really honest, I also hoped he would hear all about my growth, email me back, and we’d live happily ever after. Seriously, I checked my email so many times over the next few weeks. No response.

Six months later my life looked very different. I was legally divorced. I had just finished my first semester of seminary. And, I had met a really amazing man on christianmingle.com. Kris and I met online and two days later we met in person. He came to see me in the show I was in and after the show we went out for a late dinner. It was a brief but amazing night. The challenge was, he lived about an hour away and he worked days and I worked nights. We decided to plan an entire day-long date the next week. We were so excited to spend a whole day face-to-face, and the night before, as we were hanging up the phone after midnight, I got an email notification.

I’ll give you one guess as to who that email was from.

YUP! The runner!!! Can you believe it?! I hadn’t seen him or talked to him in nine months, and on the day I was going to go on the most anticipated date of my life, I HEAR FROM HIM!

The email said, “I am sorry I never got back to you. I didn’t know how to feel and I wasn’t sure you were ready to hear from me.” He also wanted to know if I got into seminary, how it was going, and all the other catching up stuff.

I was beside myself. I decided to try to ignore the email and just go on my date and enjoy myself. It was spectacular…but, that’s another blog.

The next day, I got on a plane to spend the week leading up to Christmas in Maine. I swear to you, that week played out like a movie. On the way to Maine, I wrote the runner back. I had done some cyber-stalking and had seen on his internet dating profile that he had met someone, and it looked like he was even engaged. I felt like I could safely email him and tell him all about what had gone on in my life.

We proceeded to email everyday while I was in Maine. We were going back and forth about school, and other lighthearted stuff, but I was starting to really wonder about his relationship status. I was beginning to feel guilty. I would spend the day on the phone building my relationship with Kris, and at night I was emailing with the runner, who I thought was in a relationship.

Christmas day I arrived at the airport at the crack of dawn. I was so excited to go home because Kris had invited me to his home once I landed to meet his daughters. It was going to be a day that would possibly alter the course of my life. And of course, another email comes in.

“Hey, I want you to know that when you get back home, I would like to pick up where we left off nine months ago. I think we really could have something special and I want to pursue a serious relationship with you.”

I just about died. Right there in the airport. Season, laying dead on the ground.

WHAAAAT??!!! Clearly he wasn’t engaged, or dating anyone for that matter. It must have been an old profile. I couldn’t see straight.

What in the world was I to do? I had to make a choice. I was going home to really dive into a relationship with Kris, a man who I knew was the real deal; I was about to meet his children for heaven’s sake! But the guy who nine months earlier rocked my world in one brief and painful date, the very guy that had got away, was now back!

It was an agonizing plane ride. I compared the two very different men from as many angles as I could. Imagining life with both played out like a movie…one girl, two very different lives.

The runner – older than me, had money, lived on the beach, drove a motorcycle, pursuing higher education, never been married, no kids. Looked great on paper. Loved Jesus.

Kris – younger than me, three kids, in ministry, no money, no education, lived in the sticks (that’s what I thought of Temecula). Didn’t look good on paper. Loved Jesus.

Praying. Crying. Praying some more. Who is the right one, Lord?! And then I heard it. The Lord said,

“Season, pick one, I’ll bless it.”

How good is God!? My sweet, gracious, and powerful Lord loves me so much.

For many reasons, too many to ever list, I picked Kris. I never looked back. And how blessed we are!

Joyfully free to choose,

Season