I Love You More Than a Giant Burrito
5 ways that Christian Dating in College is like a Chipotle Burrito
Most Christian kids learn that “you should only date if you’re ready to get married” and many of these kids feel like there’s a disclaimer that says, “on pain of death ... or nuclear holocaust.” But when they make it to college and they’re “ready to get married” they have no idea how to find that special someone. Many of them are even scared to date because they’ve never done it before ... or they’re afraid of launching a nuclear holocaust.
What if I told you that Christian dating is as simple as a Chipotle burrito? I mean, Chipotle burritos are wonderfully complex and sometimes you wonder if one burrito could really feed a small army, but at the end of the day
it’s simply a burrito.
No mystery or fantasy or mythical awesomeness. So here are a few lessons we can learn about dating from the philosophy of the Chipotle burrito.
● You can’t have a burrito without a tortilla, and you can’t get married if you don’t date ... at all.
○ Too often you run into Christian young adults who have “kissed dating goodbye.” I’m not saying Joshua Harris’s book I Kissed Dating Goodbye is a bad one. He did a great job redefining the nature of dating (he calls it courting, but it’s basically just a different kind of dating). But some Christians have the misconception that dating is inherently a bad thing.
○ Going out is just that, going out. Girls, when a guy asks you to a dance or to dinner, he’s not asking you to marry him or even to start “a relationship.” He just thinks you would have a good time together as friends. Sure, dating can lead to marriage, but if you treat the other person as a friend, you’ll be okay with it if it doesn’t lead to marriage.
○ The person you marry is probably going to be someone you date. Let me say that again. The person you marry is probably going to be someone you date. Dating is a great way to get to know someone, so don’t be afraid to date!
●Nobody knows how to eat a Chipotle burrito without making a mess or looking ridiculous.
○ The truth is, no one knows how to eat the burrito, but we all just go for it anyway. If we all sat around waiting for God to tell us how to do it perfectly, we’d have never known that Mexican fast food could taste so good or that we could survive for weeks on one burrito.
○ In the same way, no one can tell you exactly how to ask someone out or how you know that person is someone you should date. Sometimes you just have to go for it anyway. Go for it prayerfully, but go for it.
●One good Chipotle burrito deserves another.
○ Every burrito longs to find its perfectly tasty counterpart to make little churros with. But let’s face it, the perfect burrito is not going to have churros with a loser burrito. I had a youth pastor who once said that if you’re sowing loser seeds ... God’s going to smite you. No, not really. He said if you’re sowing loser seeds, the godly Christian guy or girl won’t be attracted to that. If you want to marry a godly person, you have to be a godly person yourself. Try to make yourself someone that a Christian guy or girl would want to marry.
●You have to know when to stop eating.
○ If you keep eating a burrito and you’re too full, eventually you’ll explode. In order to avoid spontaneous explosion you have to know when to leave a date.
Here are some types of first dates you want to get out of:
■ The I-can’t-seem-to-keep-my-shirt-on date: You’re sitting in the movies watching the previews and your date suddenly takes his shirt off for no reason...
■ The word vomit date: Your date starts telling you all about her life in one extremely long run-on sentence. She doesn’t even stop for a breath, let alone stopping long enough for you to say, “Um, I gotta go to the bathroom...”
■The awkward silence date: You and your date try to make things less awkward, but you just don’t seem to have anything in common. It’s been so long now since anyone last spoke that if you spoke now it would just make things more awkward...
■ The kiss-on-the-first-date date: Your date always seems to be trying to put his arm around you, tickle you and kiss you. You thought you were “just friends”...
All of these kinds of dates come from The College Adventure Handbook by Rob Stennett and Joe Kirkendall. I recommend it for all college students. If you find yourself in any of these date situations, go take a call ... and never come back.
●God is sovereign over your burrito.
○Through all the fear of nuclear holocaust and first date mishaps, God is sovereign over your dating relationships just as he is sovereign over your Chipotle burrito experience. We may not know all the answers, but we know someone who does. God made us to have friends with the opposite sex, so we shouldn't be afraid of dating so long as we include Him in it. Now go to Chipotle with someone for a date!