I never wake up in the morning and determine, "Today I am going to look for love in all the wrong places."
I never make a To Do List that includes "Entrust my heart to fallible humans", sandwiched between "Grocery shop" and "Fold laundry".
I never remind myself to forget that God's love is better than life by writing it on a Post It note or my Google Calender (Ps. 63:3).
These are just things I do. They come naturally - unprovoked, unwarranted, and unfailingly. They are as common to me as breathing.
I routinely miss God by mistaking the love people offer me for the love He offers me.
I have some people in my life who love me well. I trust their love implicitly because they've proven faithful to me over and over again. I have no fear that they will withdraw their love purposefully or inadvertently. If life separates us, for instance, I have every confidence that they will still love me well, wherever they are, by continuing to pray for me with fervency.
I am so thankful to have a handful of people who love me this well...
...but there is a downside.
It is easy for me to forget that they are just scale models of God's love, mere samples of the abundant affection and commitment He offers me. I get all caught up in human love and start to think it fulfills like nothing else can...not even God. My happiness, my security, my hope all become tied to the frequency and depth of adoration people give me.
I buy the lie that human love is as good as it gets, and I allow myself to become satisfied with it...
I stop pursuing the Lord.
I turn that energy toward people.
I demand more and more of their love.
Until...their love no longer satisfies.
I need this rude-awakening to bring me back to the truth.
God's love is unfailing; man's love is not. (Ps. 52:8; Pr. 20:6)
Human love may fulfill us partially, but it is just a model meant to direct our attention to the only One who truly loves.
3 comments:
beautiful and real post!
why do we so often worship the creation rather than the Creator?
On a scale of 1-10 God's love is 100, but I am willing to settle for even a 6 on the scale from a human being as long as I believe I can manipulate the getting of it. Am I afraid of drowning in God's love?
Thanks (I think) for describing so well how naturally I choose to sin.
We fear being out of control of God's love... and that fear is more real to us than the fact that, even though we don't control it (or precisely BECAUSE we don't control it), His love is more satisfying than any love we manage to coerce out of others. His love is also more predictable, despite our overwhelming feeling that it is "wild" because we can't control it... it's not wild; He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Is this a whole other blog post?
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