A few weeks ago I hung out with Parker and had one of our usual sprawling conversations about life as a single thirty-something. The biggest chunk of it, of course, was about finding a girl. And if it wasn't difficult enough on its own, as professing Christians, we were looking for a Christian girl. Well, maybe. I think we had both gotten to the point where we were starting to ask whether even being a non-Christian was a deal-breaker.

Me: So I guess I could ask a non-Christian girl out. But what if it goes well? Then what?

He: I don't know.

I told him that I knew a strong Christian couple that had broken up because the girl had lost her faith. And he told me that he knew other couples that went through the same sort of thing. Initially I had seen that as a reminder of how important it is to find a strong Christian girl... But all these people were strong Christians at one point, and that didn't seem to help them. So does it make a difference?

A few weeks before that, Myung kept pushing me to ask out the cute barista at his Barnes. I was thisclose. Kind of random, considering I'd said maybe two words to her ever, and knew nothing about her, but he was pretty persistent ("She's nice. She works really hard, too."). So I was all ready to ask her out, but she'd finished her shift and left. But what if I had, and what if she'd said yes, and what if it went great, and what if I found out she wasn't a Christian? Then what? Keep going out? Try to convert her? Keep our religious beliefs separate? Be unable to connect with her about the one thing that moves my heart more than anything else in the world?

I don't know.

It seems like whenever I have a life question that I can't answer, I take a trip and things seem to clear up. Well, Parker said he could get a long weekend off at the same time as my vacation next month, and, at his insistence, LA, you'll be seeing me once again. I hope you have some answers, but I'll settle for good food.