Flashback: June 3, 1994

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this before, but I feel the need to think back on that night today.

At this point in our history, Michael and I were just friends and members of a fairly large praise band and worship team. In the months prior, we'd all started spending more and more time socializing together - going to breakfast or lunch after the final Sunday service, attending the singles' group together, stuff like that. The group was gelling together, and I sensed that Michael was attracted to me.

On June 3, 1994, Chris and Corey (two guys on the worship team) threw a big party. Chris was a history buff, and so this party had a historical theme centering around the Titanic. We were all encouraged to dress up in period costumes and be prepared for some adventure. I went to the party with Penny, and it was fun for a while.

I know I began to feel a bit disappointed as it got later and there was no sign of Michael. He'd said he would be there. I wanted him to see my costume. Sometime between eleven and twelve o'clock Penny and I agreed to leave the party. We went back to my parents' house (where I was living at the time), and we decided to hang out for a little while together. I gave Michael a call to chide him for not making it to the party, but he wasn't home and so I just left a message instead.

After Penny decided to go home, I went to bed. The phone rang shortly thereafter and it was Michael. He asked me why I hadn't been at the party, and I protested that I had been there. Turns out he showed up shortly after Penny and I left.

Anyway, we ended up having the longest phone conversation we'd ever had. Before now, Michael had called periodically for no apparent reason, but they were the shortest, dumbest conversations - you would have thought we were a couple of teenagers. Hi. What are you doing? Okay. Well, I'll see you next weekend. Yeah, stuff like that. Too funny.

This night, Michael asked if it was just him, or was there some sort of attraction between us. I agreed that it seemed like there was, and that I could see myself really liking him, but that there were a couple of problems. First, he wasn't a Christian, and I was looking to date a Christian. Secondly, he already had a girlfriend to my knowledge, and I needed to know if he was ready to seriously consider making changes in that part of his life. He said he wasn't, but wasn't it nice to know that we had mutual feelings for each other. I don't think I agreed with that summation, and I'm pretty sure I told him that I'd prefer to know we had mutual feelings if we were both in a position to act on them.

That was it for that night, but we spent a lot of time together over the next few months getting to know each other better, and fantasizing about being married and having babies together. Unfortunately, Michael did not follow through with any of this talk, and I just ended up with a broken heart.

There's a lot more to the story, obviously. Thirteen years later we were married, and we made each other very happy for all the days we had together.