Friday Night at the Colonnade
My parents are in town this weekend. We are chilling right now, and planning to get some Stone Mountain laser show action in tonight.
Last night, we went through the "where do you want to go to eat?" question, and we decided to go down to the Colonnade. I organized my dinner group there a few months ago, and they have great, aka - amazing - Southern "down home" goodies. Mom and Dad were pretty down with that.
We get to the restaurant around 7:30pm, and it is PACKED, the smells of fried chicken is in the air (mmmmmmm), and there's a 20 minute wait to get a table. Given that I've waited over an hour for tables in Houston before, I didn't see this as a big deal. After about 5 minutes of standing, we find a table in the bar/lounge area where people are hanging out and waiting for tables.
Oh, I should give you this detail... The Colonnade is an Atlanta landmark, it was showcased on Guy's show "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" (a Food Network TV show), and is located on the infamous Cheshire Bridge Road. For those outside of Atlanta, this is where the greatest concentration of "adult entertainment" venues are in the city. I obviously don't hang out in this area... I've never been to a strip club and will keep it that way.
But... I'm pretty sure that may have been the planned destination for a lot of folks I saw as I was people-watching in the waiting area. What I saw was clusters of really sleazy/creepy (I'm sure if I was there with a mixed group the word "creepy" would come up at least once or twice) old guys that I'm pretty sure had one of those places on their agenda last night. All of them had to be over 55, most of them looked like players, and honestly I felt a little dirty just by proximity.
I thought, I imagine these are same guys trolled the clubs of Buckhead 20 or 30 years ago chasing skirts and doing one night stands when they were young. I wonder how many of them thought... "once I meet the right person, I'll change my ways.... love will be enough." And... I wonder how many of them (especially the ones that did go see whatever happens in other Cheshire Bridge Rd establishments) were sporting wedding rings. That thought especially makes me shudder... I feel sorry for those wives :-(, especially the ones that believed the "right person myth" and discovered after the wedding what the product behind the packaging was.
Andy likes to say something like this... "direction determines destination." It's unfortunate if you've invested in a lot of bad choices, but it's true. You can't make extremely unwise choices today, keep making them, and then one day a beautiful, godly woman walks in your life and you just instantly change. It doesn't work that way, behavior can change for a season but the character developed by those day-by-day, week-by-week decisions will come out because ultimately that's what you are invested in.
So what kind of future are you investing in? Is it one of faithfulness, moral authority, and worthy leadership? Or... is it one that will find you hiding your wedding ring at a "fun" venue when you are 55 years old, keeping secrets from the people you love? I pray that we would all invest in a life that God will bless with His favor and in deeper intimacy and transparency with like-minded people. That's what I want.
Oh... and by the way.... we did eventually get a table.
And the food there ROCKS. This is why I ran 4.7 miles this morning :-)
-------
On an unrelated note, when my parents came in two weeks ago, my mom gave me a copy of the Georgia Travel guide that she picked up at the Welcome Center on I-85. She got it because there is a "100 Great (cheap) Dates" article in it. Well, my friends, she's getting more aggressive :-). In some ways, I appreciate the attempt even if I probably won't take a girl out for a 4 hour hike (one of the recommendations) on a first date. One day... I hope to introduce her to someone awesome. I'm still waiting... and investing in becoming the person that a girl that loves Jesus would want to have pursue her. :-).
Last night, we went through the "where do you want to go to eat?" question, and we decided to go down to the Colonnade. I organized my dinner group there a few months ago, and they have great, aka - amazing - Southern "down home" goodies. Mom and Dad were pretty down with that.
We get to the restaurant around 7:30pm, and it is PACKED, the smells of fried chicken is in the air (mmmmmmm), and there's a 20 minute wait to get a table. Given that I've waited over an hour for tables in Houston before, I didn't see this as a big deal. After about 5 minutes of standing, we find a table in the bar/lounge area where people are hanging out and waiting for tables.
Oh, I should give you this detail... The Colonnade is an Atlanta landmark, it was showcased on Guy's show "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" (a Food Network TV show), and is located on the infamous Cheshire Bridge Road. For those outside of Atlanta, this is where the greatest concentration of "adult entertainment" venues are in the city. I obviously don't hang out in this area... I've never been to a strip club and will keep it that way.
But... I'm pretty sure that may have been the planned destination for a lot of folks I saw as I was people-watching in the waiting area. What I saw was clusters of really sleazy/creepy (I'm sure if I was there with a mixed group the word "creepy" would come up at least once or twice) old guys that I'm pretty sure had one of those places on their agenda last night. All of them had to be over 55, most of them looked like players, and honestly I felt a little dirty just by proximity.
I thought, I imagine these are same guys trolled the clubs of Buckhead 20 or 30 years ago chasing skirts and doing one night stands when they were young. I wonder how many of them thought... "once I meet the right person, I'll change my ways.... love will be enough." And... I wonder how many of them (especially the ones that did go see whatever happens in other Cheshire Bridge Rd establishments) were sporting wedding rings. That thought especially makes me shudder... I feel sorry for those wives :-(, especially the ones that believed the "right person myth" and discovered after the wedding what the product behind the packaging was.
Andy likes to say something like this... "direction determines destination." It's unfortunate if you've invested in a lot of bad choices, but it's true. You can't make extremely unwise choices today, keep making them, and then one day a beautiful, godly woman walks in your life and you just instantly change. It doesn't work that way, behavior can change for a season but the character developed by those day-by-day, week-by-week decisions will come out because ultimately that's what you are invested in.
So what kind of future are you investing in? Is it one of faithfulness, moral authority, and worthy leadership? Or... is it one that will find you hiding your wedding ring at a "fun" venue when you are 55 years old, keeping secrets from the people you love? I pray that we would all invest in a life that God will bless with His favor and in deeper intimacy and transparency with like-minded people. That's what I want.
Oh... and by the way.... we did eventually get a table.
And the food there ROCKS. This is why I ran 4.7 miles this morning :-)
-------
On an unrelated note, when my parents came in two weeks ago, my mom gave me a copy of the Georgia Travel guide that she picked up at the Welcome Center on I-85. She got it because there is a "100 Great (cheap) Dates" article in it. Well, my friends, she's getting more aggressive :-). In some ways, I appreciate the attempt even if I probably won't take a girl out for a 4 hour hike (one of the recommendations) on a first date. One day... I hope to introduce her to someone awesome. I'm still waiting... and investing in becoming the person that a girl that loves Jesus would want to have pursue her. :-).
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