An acquaintance was telling me about a new television show she’d watched the night before.
“It’s like The Dating Game. Remember The Dating Game? With Chuck Woolery?”
I nodded as she sat down across from me for lunch. I remembered the premise of The Dating Game. A bachelorette or bachelor would sit in a special spot onstage, prepared to ask a series of questions of three members of the opposite sex, all of whom were hidden. Basing their decision on answers instead of appearance, they would choose to go on a date with one of the hidden contestants at the end of the show.
“Well, it’s like that, but different,” my companion continued. “In this show, the bachelor or bachelorette doesn’t ask questions. They only look through the suitcases of three contestants, and then they can pick the person they want to go out with based upon the contents of the suitcase.”
“That’s kind of interesting,” I said, opening my Dr. Pepper. “But I don’t think the contents of a suitcase would really tell you anything important about whether you wanted to get to know a person. I don’t know … maybe it would tell you whom you should avoid.”
“That’s just the point!” she answered. “Last night, the bachelor had already met these contestants, and there was a particular woman he really liked, but then he looked in all three suitcases, and he realized that he didn’t want her at all. The stuff in her suitcase told him all he needed to know.”
“Good grief! What was in her suitcase? Something terrible?” I leaned forward, listening.
“A Bible! This girl had a Bible in her suitcase!”
I was confused. “Wait. Just a Bible?”
“Well, clothes and shoes and toiletries and all that … but also a Bible. The guy shut the suitcase real quick. The Bible told him all he needed to know. He wanted to avoid that girl immediately. Can you believe someone would pack a Bible in their suitcase? What kind of person can’t go on a trip without a Bible? That’s just weird.”
I paused, thinking how I should respond. Finally, I smiled. “I don’t think I’ll ever go on that show, then. I travel a lot for work, and I always pack a Bible in my suitcase. I’m serious. Even before I start putting in the clothes, the Bible goes in.”
“What?!” She almost choked. “You actually pack a Bible in your suitcase?”
“Yeah, for real. I do,” I laughed.
“Well, that explains it! That is why you are not married, Nika! You have got to stop carrying Bibles around. Men don’t like it. It freaks them out, and it’s weird.”
I put down my fork. I wasn’t hurt or offended. I just wanted to make myself clear. Still smiling, I said, “Look, I know it may seem different, but that is a good thing. I pack a Bible for a reason. I’ve got a Bible on my phone, so I don’t need to pack a hard copy, but doing so is a symbol that I would never go anywhere without God. He is first in my heart. I’m never changing that for anyone. If a man is freaked out by a woman with a Bible, then he is not the one for me. I won’t even be interested in him. The kind of man I am looking for is looking for the kind of woman who packs a Bible in her suitcase. So I’ll keep carrying a Bible around because that’s just who I am. Don’t worry about me.”
Her jaw dropped.
“I’m serious. I’ll be fine. No worries.”
We finished our lunch with conversation on other topics, but even when I saw her months later, she said, “The suitcase thing … I still say it’s weird.”
I just laughed.
God is my one thing. Everything– everyone— else is second. To the world, love doesn’t look weird when it is directed toward a person. It only looks weird when it is directed toward a “being.” That is why it is so important to let people know Jesus isn’t just a “Being.”
He’s a Person.
When I went to a Bethel Worship Night last week, we sang “You Are My One Thing.” I stood up and sang as loud as I could. I love that song, sure, but also we Psalms readers were in the middle of reading Psalms 22-28, and there in the thick of it is Psalm 27:4-6 (MSG)–
I’m asking God for one thing,
only one thing:
To live with him in His house
my whole life long.
I’ll contemplate his beauty;
I’ll study at his feet.
That’s the only quiet, secure place
in a noisy world,
The perfect getaway,
far from the buzz of traffic.
God holds me head and shoulders
above all who try to pull me down.
I’m headed for His place to offer anthems
that will raise the roof!
Already I’m singing God-songs;
I’m making music to God.
You can look in my suitcase. More than that, you can look in my heart. I have nothing to hide.
Neither do you. It is one thing to be respectful and strategic in the workplace, not flaunting or brashly displaying our belief. But we don’t have to whisper or live in shadows, either. And we certainly don’t have to be embarrassed. This kind of love is the kind you have to sing about, sometimes in soft ballads …
… and sometimes in anthems that raise the roof.
