What LOVE’s Got to Do With It

Aaahhh, love.

The mystery of love – and all of its spiritual, emotional, and physical aspects – has always fascinated me. From the exhilarating intoxication of “falling” in love for the first time to the gut-wrenching heartbreak of love lost, love’s awesome!

The things we have all done at one time or another in the name of love are remarkable both in their profound beauty and sheer stupidity. Experiencing all the various expressions of love – parental, friendship, sibling and romantic – and the joy and disappointment each can bring is something to contemplate.

[Youtube]V5MWqZXFTGc&feature=related[/Youtube]

Yes, down through the years love has fascinated me. It still does. Hopefully, it fascinates you, too, – enough to become your lifelong pursuit.

But please understand that you and I will never find love if we are only seeking to capture it. That is the biggest lie that has ever been told: that the best love we can ever hope to experience is the kind we get from another human being. Or that love should always make us happy. That love is something we haphazardly “fall” into. And that love means getting what we think we want all the time.

These and other lies keep people grappling with pain and loneliness in their pursuit of that elusive butterfly called love. That’s a childish understanding. It’s fantasy. It’s unreal. And anytime we choose to live in denial we create problems for ourselves and for others.

In order to fully experience the best love there is we must stop chasing after love. That means we must come to the place where we resolve to admit to ourselves we have been attempting to be loved rather than to be loving individuals. We must accept the truth that while love does make us emotional; it is more than just emotions. Love is a verb, not an adjective (1 John 3:16-18). It is a choice; something we consciously, deliberately do – whether we feel like it or not.

[Youtube]KRX4OkDtsZU[/Youtube]
This blog was written partly out of a divine mandate (when God gives me something to share with the world, I must share it by any means necessary). I must say that in the process of writing a yet unpublished book, I have also undergone my own catharsis. When I began writing it back in the mid-90’s, I was just beginning to hit mid-life and all the drama that typically accompanies it. Time and circumstances forced me to delve deeply into my psyche and dare to face unresolved issues, hidden sinful tendencies, and unhealed wounds from my childhood and adolescent development.

During that period I began journaling on a daily basis and as I did so the layers of my true identity slowly began to peel away. I rediscovered God in a very real way – completely without the restraints of religion.

I also found true love and acceptance of myself for the first time in my life. This deeper experience of God’s love for me awakened within me the passion to express that same love to people all around me. New levels of intimacy were seen and felt in my relationships.

How I thank the Lord for deepening my understanding of who He is and how He loves us unconditionally. Our relationship has continued to sustain me through the series of cataclysmic recent events in my own life (including my father’s death, losing my job, selling my home, relocating, a stretch of unemployment, financial failures, friendship betrayal, a rebellious teenager, and impaired health).

In this uncertain world that seems to be growing darker day-by-day, God’s love is our only hope.