The Life Long Question

There are pivotal times in your life when you think about things that are important and things that are not.
Love...
Oh what an important word.
A word that conjures up images of romance, forever, passion, humility, selflessness, and Christ's sacrifice.
And yet the feeling feels so foreign. It seems like an unsolved mystery for so many.

You as a person searching for love, they ask the simple question, "what does love look like?" Does love even have a face?
Many times in my life I have seen what I thought was love. I thought I had love pegged! And then the most surprising thing happened, the couple broke up, the spouses got divorced, and the engaged couple parted ways... And in my confusion I asked yet again, "if this is not love, what is love?"

You know I have gotten to the point in my life that I am still asking that question but I think it is from a different angle now. I have been asking myself, "how do I see love?" This statement is quite different and yet the same. But I believe that instead of constantly being on a man hunt for what love could possibly look like I should internalize the question and look within myself. You see when you ask yourself what love is you begin to realize that love is so much more than what it may seem like from the outside. When you internalize love you slowly but surely come to the realization that love can't truly be found in anyone. The only love you will ever find is through Christ.

Humanity is wrought with perversion and atrocious ideas of what love is. Absurd ideas such as tough love, love that is physically rough, love that beats you, love that is conditional and holds consequences upon failure, love that never with stands the test of time.

There is even the misconstrued idea of love that is publicized in every romantic movie in Hollywood or disney princess movie. Ideas of love that include, fuzzy feelings, passion, physical touch, rapid heart, loss of breath and hunger. Ideas that love is eternal because that person you like makes you feel all warm inside. And if you feel that way you MUST be in love. But what the media never tell you is that over time those initial feelings eventually fade and what foundation you thought you had now stands on nothing and the couple eventually parts ways. This is a sad truth that is very much happening in our society today. Divorce rates are high and teen pregnancies are high. These two things are linked strongly to our societies perception of an illusion of what love is.

If you pay attention to this kind of love, your mind grows accustomed to its inadequacies and many times this kind of love is never enough. You are constantly striving to obtain it and ultimately falling short of its expectations therefore leaving you dissatisfied.
There is a love however that will never fall short. A love that quenches both your physical and spiritual needs.

"Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw"
-John 4:10-15 

So I have made the decision to not look anywhere else for what love may look like. But I will look straight at the one person that can truly show me what love really is. You see love may fail you in your marriage, and love may fail you with your boyfriend or sibling and even your father but there is an eternal love from your creator and savior that can never give the false illusion of love. Because the love you see, experience and feel from one day to the next is the purest kind when it comes from Christ. And I can assure you, your thirst will be quenched forever more.

So what is love?
God is love.

If God is not the center of your marriage then there is no true love. If God is not in the center of your life then you cannot truly love anyone else. Because humanities love will always fall short, but Gods love is eternal.