Howdy, and welcome to the Breakaway podcast.

Breakaway is a Bible study recorded on the campus of Texas A&M.

For more information on Breakaway, please visit breakaway ministries.org.

We hope you enjoy the message and stick around for more at the end.

Well, we're talking about dating tonight. And I would like to begin with a quote from David Brooks.

He's a columnist for the New York Times.

And he wrote an article about the social frontier facing the young modern single.

And this is what he said.

They hit puberty around 13, and many don't get married until they're past 30.

That's two decades of coupling, uncoupling,

hooking up, relationships, shopping around.

This period isn't a transition anymore.

It's a sprawling life stage and nobody knows the rules.

Once young people came a call-in as part of courtship, then they

had dating and going steady, but the rules of courtship have dissolved. They've been replaced

by ambiguity and uncertainty. Cell phones, Facebook, text messages, they give people access to hundreds

of, quote, friends,

but that only increases the fluidity, drama, and anxiety.

And I'll tell you, I don't know, David Brooks, but in my experience of living among young

singles, I would say I hear this all the time. Ambiguity, uncertainty,

drama, and it all produces anxiety. And it makes me sad that something that should be

associated with words like fun and exciting. We're talking about young love are more often

...