Matchmaker

In the recent episode of How I Met Your Mother we have Ted going to a local matchmaker (Love Solutions) to help him find the best match for him.This matchmaker has a reputation of being the very best in town with a 100% success rate. ted is reluctant at first because he see going to a matchmaker as giving up. But after some expected encouragement from his friends he decides to go through with it. Barney accompanies him seeing it as an opportunity to met lonely and desperate women. Barney pretends to be this sensitive, lonely, and compassionate man but is quickly found out by the founder of Love Solutions. He is kicked out by her but Ted remained. She saw potential in Ted and guaranteed that she will find him a match. However after three days she is unable to find Ted an available match.

His only match is a women who is engaged to be married. Of course this does not stop Ted from going to meet her. Using the information he acquired, by stealing her profile print out, he tries to woo her. This quickly proves useless as she is fully committed to going through with the marriage. She convinces him not to give up looking despite the fact that the matchmaker couldn't help him.

I don't to many people personally who have been set up through a "matchmaker." I know I have been on the end if being set up a few times and every time it did not work out very well. Single people everywhere are looking for that special someone and at times they have well meaning friends who try to help them. We as believers who are in search for that special someone turn to God in our journey. I constantly look to God for wisdom in this manner. But is making God the divine "matchmaker" appropriate? Now I believe that God care about us, I mean the very hairs on our head are counted. But when I hear the words "God has someone special in line for me." I struggle thinking of him as a matchmaker. I believe that his teaches us his ways and guides us into maturity so that we may make wise choices in every manner, especially relationships.

People often quote the Adam and Eve story that God brought Eve to Adam. This is enough reasoning to conclude that God will bring us our partner. Though I see some validity in this argument, we must recognized that they were the only two at the time. We can let ourselves be over taken by such thoughts and not be active in our self growth and improvement.

Moving on into Maturity

In this weeks episode of How I Met Your Mother we have the classic case of trying to reclaim your youth.

Robin has just gotten on the covenantal VIP list at the hottest club in town. She invites Ted and Barney along. She wants to introduce Ted to her a friend and Barney, as usual, was going to pick up what he calls "cutlets" (his term for women). Marshall is offended that he and Lily were not invited. The others didn't they would be willing to go because Lily encouraged Marshall to start doing "grown up" things. So they planned a wine tasting party. Quickly, Marshall feels old and left out, so he ditches the party and follows them to the club. Lily notices Marshall's absence and chases after him. There at the club they realized that "growing up" was just not for them. They choose to continue to live their lives the way they did in college. As for the other three: Robin was denied access into the VIP room then later finds herself unable to get back into the club. Ted humiliates himself in front Robins friends and Barney unknowingly ends up "bumping and grinding" with his cousin.

Growing up is hard to do. There is a few to growing up, just think of all the responsibilities that come with it: driving, getting a job, paying bill, paying taxes, going to college, getting married, staring a family, taking care of friends and family; and for us believers, getting involved in ministry. When looking at all these things, it is fun to remember the simpler times of our life and hold onto that part. Though having a childlike spirit is admirable and encouraged by Christ, acting like a child after a certain age can be unacceptable.

Hebrew 6.1 says: Therefore leaving elementary teachings of Christ, let us press onto maturity... Everyday we are to make steps toward maturity. Whether it be emotional, mental, or spiritual maturity. This is the responsibility of every Christ follower. Unfortunately most will never make those steps toward maturity. They will continue being taught the elementary doctrine while they sit in the same pews for years. Being led by the Spirit and through careful study of the Word, prayer, and obedience to his commandments we will move onto maturity.

Zeal without Wisdom

In episode three of How I Met Your Mother we have Ted Mosby rediscovering a dress shirt which he was not too fond of some time earlier. The rediscovery of this shirt caused Ted to rethink those things which he disliked in the past and reconsider them for his future. This same mindset would be directed toward past relationships he had with women, thinking that perhaps one of his ex-girlfriends could possibly be "the one." With some help from his bar going friends, they are able to pinpoint one which they believe was the right one for Ted.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Ted broke up with this woman three years earlier on her birthday by leaving her a message on her answering machine. To her in embarrassment, the message was being left at the time of her surprise party as her guest were waiting for her arrival.

Determined to rekindle the relationship, Ted attempts to get in contact with this woman who at first is resistant but then after a few innocent and sweet gestures by Ted she agrees to go out with him again. Things seem to be going well at first, however three weeks into the restored relationship Ted decides to break up with her again. This time however doing it the mature way, in person; however timing is not necessarily on his side when he finds out that the day he decides to break up with her again is on her birthday. She does not take the news very well and the whole situation results in Ted been beat up by this woman.

Ted Mosby was in a very vulnerable state as he reminisced through the past looking for the one among his ex-lovers. At the moment of vulnerability we are susceptible to looking back to those things which were good in our pass and pursue those things in hope for happiness in the future. Such things can be beneficial to us, however if we are driven solely by emotions that are not accompanied by wisdom we can find ourselves making decisions that will ultimately be more harmful than the initial vulnerability that caused us to pursue those things.

I do not at all discount the importance of our emotions. I believe that so often we in the Christian culture demonize emotions because we determine them to be dishonest. I sincerely believe that God designed us to be emotional beings and can drive us toward his will through our emotions. However I stand on the basis that emotions need to be company by wisdom if we are to step effectively in the way in which the Father is taking us.

Proverbs 19:2 mentions that it is not good to have zeal with out knowledge or wisdom, and not to make hasty decisions. Yes, it is difficult to make wise and reasonable decisions when our emotions are on overdrive. Let us no longer be ashamed of our motions but incorporate wisdom and knowledge in the decisions that we make. It is easy to share the positive and uplifting emotions with others, yet we hide or put away the negative emotions that we don't want other people to see. We need to find trustworthy friends who we can share those negative interactions with that way we are notsulking in our grievances but lifting up one another in encouragement and in prayer, fulfilling the Lord desires for us to share our burdens with one another.