Love has already found you

I am tempted so many times in my life to think about things that lie ahead: what I'm doing for the summer, next semester's classes, the career that I want after college, etc. But the thing that I look ahead to the most, and I'm guessing what many people look ahead to the most, is marriage. My mind is so often enraptured in the thought of finally finding the "love" that is written about in countless books and portrayed in countless movies (yes, I do sound like a little girl), and my thoughts almost always consist of things like, "Oh, boy, I sure hope someday someone will love me like that, and I'll love them back! That would just be the cat's pajamas!" (My inner self is apparently a young lad from the 1920s). However, when I take a step back from those thoughts, it occurs to me that in all of God's promises that he has made towards us, he never promises everyone a wife or a husband. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 7:8-9, God speaks through Paul and says that "...it is good for them [the unmarried] if they remained even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion" (NKJV).

Now that this thought has occurred to me, I realize that marriage is not a guarantee, and I may never find that "love" that is in so many movies. So the question I pose to myself, and everyone else reading this, is: If marriage is not a God-given promise, why do we all seem to be living for it, and why do we act like it is something that God owes us? I can recall several occasions where I, or someone else, have said, "God has someone out there for me, and I don't need (insert name here) because God loves me and has someone in mind for me." To be blunt about it, what the heck is wrong with us? We have a God who loves us so much that He sent His one and only son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die on a cross for us. Yet, when we are heartbroken or upset about a worldly relationship, instead of taking refuge in that love that exceeds all worldly standards, we try and take solace in the warped expectation that God owes us a "soul mate", as if being a Christian suddenly grants us a wife or husband in the future. The harsh truth is that the love that we waste so much of our lives seeking out and waiting for, is neither needed or guaranteed. But don't get me wrong, many of us have already realized that, so instead we spend our lives groaning about the fact that we may never find love, and that is perhaps the saddest aspect of this whole scenario. We may never find this so-called love that we spend all of our time seeking and hoping for, but the thing is that we don't need to try and find love, because love has already found us. God IS love. Jesus IS love. Why must we seek out earthly gratification that some other human being loves us, when the God of the universe who created everything loves us more than anyone else is capable of. In no way am I anti-marriage, I believe it is a magnificent way to show the love of Christ in our own lives. I am just pro-Christ and I am choosing to try my best (though I fail on numerous occasions) to focus my mind on His word and the love that He provides. That being said, don't blow off earthly relationships, love others as Christ loves you, but also don't be horribly sad and heartbroken when they don't work out the way you want them too. And if you are heartbroken, examine your heart, because if it breaks after the failure of an earthly relationship, maybe, just maybe, its not being held together by the right kind of love. 1 John 4:8 tells us that "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." God is love, and without Him, there is not true love. Earthly relationships and people come and go. Remember that Christ loved you so much that He laid down His life for us, and that His love is a love that is not fleeting and will always be with us no matter what we have done in the past. You don't need to find love, because love has already found you. Stop looking, and embrace it.