Deeply In Love

Every waking moment is consumed with thoughts of that special someone. Your closest friends, no matter how much they approve of the person, get tired of hearing about him or her. When you watch that romance movie, your mind replaces the two leads with the two of you. Every country song you hear makes you smile or hope you never have to sing it about this important person.

If you haven't felt this at some point in your life about someone, be prepared. It will probably happen to you too. It's a feeling that's hard to control, mainly because it feels so good. At the risk of sounding cliche, it's the most wonderful feeling in the whole world. If it's returned, it's even better.

It's love.

Recently, I have found myself experiencing this. Not that being in love is new to me. I have had some pretty major crushes in the past (just ask the friends who have had to listen to me over the years). But this. This is different. This is real love. This is something I never want to lose.

I have found myself in love with the most amazing person ever. In the words of Carrie Underwood, "He makes promises He keeps. No, He's never gonna leave." He loves me as much as I love Him, and I know that will never change. Even when I'm not giving Him all the attention He deserves, He still waits on me.

He's God.

To be honest, in comparison to how long I have known Him, this extreme passion for my Creator is new. I've always known He loves me. I've always thought I loved Him, too. But it has never been like this. In fact, I have spent years searching for love from someone else, someone else to give my love.

Actually, this passion is slowly but surely overcoming my most recent crush on a guy. For almost a week, I spent more time than normal with Him - reading my Bible, journaling (basically, writing love letters to God), and worshipping Him. For one of the first times, I found myself yearning to spend more time reading His love letter to me and return that love.

Then, last week, I hit a high point. I was with a big group of people who are falling in love with God like I am. But instead of knowing what everyone else was doing and saying, I was in my own little world, focusing on the love of my life.

As I thought about how I was falling in love with God, I thought about the crush this passion is replacing. I thought about how the next time I would see the person that I had been focused on, the attraction would not be completely gone. I knew I wanted it to be gone. I knew I wanted this newfound passion to consume me more than the immature crush.

The group began to sing the song "Empty Me" by Jeremy Camp. I very, very quickly made that song my prayer for the night. I told God I didn't want to have anything to do with that crush. I told God I wanted Him to fill my heart. Then I just sat there and let Him pour into me. It was the most refreshing, peaceful time I remember ever experiencing.

By that time I knew God was the center of my thoughts and would be as long as I let Him be, but I was still trying to figure out how I was going to deal with any left over attraction to the guy. It was then that a friend and mentor of mine started speaking. She said that she had seen a picture of a vase. The vase looked like a plant had once been in it and moved, because there were still some little specks of dirt stuck to the side. Then she saw water pouring into the vase. At first, the water got dirty because of the little bit of dirt still in there, but as the water continued to pour into the vase, it eventually overflowed and carried the dirt away. What she said the picture meant was that there is always still junk in our life - distractions, sin, anything that keeps us from God.

But... when we spend more time with God, He pours into us. He washes away all that stuff that would try to separate us from Him, that would try to steal our love from Him. That was my answer. I knew. All I have to do is spend time with God. Then this passion for Him would never go away.

So, what do I do now? I make sure I let people know who I am in love with. I talk about Him all the time. My thoughts are focusing more and more on Him. I always want to spend time with Him (which is not benefitting my homework at all), and I do it. I make time for Him no matter what.

And you know what's really great about God? He can give all His love to everybody at the same time. So, if you want to fall in love with somebody who will give you everything you need, somebody who listens to you, somebody who is happy when you're happy, somebody who will comfort you when you're down, someone who will always be waiting on you no matter what, then I suggest falling in love with God. Give HIM your heart. Spend time with Him. Read His love letter to you (otherwise known as the Bible). If you want, write your own love letter to God. I promise, it's the best thing you'll ever do.

After all, what could be better than falling in love with Love Himself?