The Pursuit of Love

Everybody, regardless of sex, color, religion, social status, young, or old, chubby or skinny, is fascinated by the topic of love and searches for it with a passion. We long for it to be vivid in a sentimental relationship, to grow deeper in our family connections, and to be real with our neighbors, co-workers, friends, and others. In fact, many argue, including the Bible, that human beings are incapable of surviving on this earth without love. Hence, everybody is on that pursuit.

However, many of us have looked for it from certain sources (boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, siblings, friends, dad, mom, sex, alcohol, hobbies, food, work) that have disappointed us. As a result, some have turned their backs on it and others have simply gone hostile and demand it in their own way, silently screaming, "I command you to love me!"

But the fact remains: everybody regardless of his or her situation is on the pursuit of love; they long to love and to be loved.

Ty Gibson, in his book A God Named Desire, quotes different verses of the Bible where the prophet uses the symbol of fire to describe God and His attributes: God’s presence (Ezekiel 1), God’s law (Deut 33:2-3), God’s glory (Ex 24:17), God’s love (Song of Solomon 8), God’s throne (Daniel 7:9-10), and God Himself is “a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). Therefore, Gibson’s logic dictates that “If God’s law= fire, and God’s glory= fire, and God’s love= fire, and God’s throne= fire, then there is some sense in which God’s law, God’s glory, God’s love, and God’s throne are all precisely the same reality” (41).

Such logic thinking makes me see the story of the adulterous woman and the Pharisees, written in John 8, with different eyes: the protagonist of the story is not the woman… but the Pharisees. These religious men were on the pursuit of love just as the woman caught in adultery was. Why? Because God’s law and God’s justice = love. And they were demanding justice and God’s law to be enforced; they were demanding to love and to be loved in their own hostile way.

I wonder what the life of these Pharisees looked like as they were growing up. Did they enjoy the love and affection of their father? Mother? Siblings and friends? What traumas did they go through as adolescents? Did they demand the love they never have from sources that disappointed them, and that’s the reason of their unkind actions towards the woman and others? Did they ride the same rollercoaster you and I ride in our pursuit of love?

Two Lessons:

           1.     God and only God can fill that container of love we all have inside

a.     Don’t search for it from other sources

           2.     Love begets love

a.     Love somebody who is unkind –He or she is just searching to love and to be loved. Seriously.
                   i.     We all know at least one person

                                            

Blessings!