True Love Waits for You

We search the earth high and low to find true love. Most movies and media remind us that we are incomplete without true love. We think we’re nothing if we aren’t currently experiencing the love of a mate. We walk around with a void in our hearts and a deep yearning to love and be loved unconditionally and purely.

But we are all only humans. Selfish and driven by a “what’s in it for me” attitude that plagues our society. As humans we are faulty and conditional in our actions and our deeds. More often than we’d like to admit, we do things for others and love others with the expectation of the same in return. In this, we place a great amount of pressure on our loved ones to fill our void.

Many in our society jump from one mate to the next. The previous person didn’t fill our need well. They weren’t good enough so we scour the earth trying to find someone who is good enough to fill the void in our hearts and the desire for true love.

Reality check time…. Nobody is good enough.

As mere humans that are faulty, sinful and selfish in nature we are incapable of being true love for someone else and ridiculous in thinking we can find true love on earth. It is impossible… for true love can only exist in one who has no ulterior motive and no selfish desire. Who on this earth can truly claim that?

How often, as we are searching for a mate, do we look to see how that person can help US? How often do we look at another person and their lives and evaluate what impact their life will have on US? Once we find the slightest thing wrong with someone else, we cast them aside because it’s something WE don’t want to deal with. Is this not selfish desire? As imperfect beings ourselves, who are WE to decide who is ‘good enough’ and who isn’t?

So, after being disappointed time and time again by humans to fill this hole in our heart, this desire to be loved in our soul, we turn to other things to either fill it, or mask the pain of not finding our fill. We may turn to our jobs and bury ourselves in our work, striving to get to the top thinking once there, we will feel accomplished or fulfilled. Or perhaps we bury ourselves in sports, watching or playing, seeking fulfillment by being labeled a ‘winner’. Or perhaps we work hard to mask our pain in our hearts with drugs, alcohol, sex or food. Yet, even as we bury ourselves in other things and objects, we still feel miserable… the hole longs to be filled.

Many of you know that I’ve been a Christian my entire life although my walk with the Lord has not been consistent. I always thought I knew who God was. I’ve heard over and over again “God Loves You” but those words seemed to just be words for me… never really sinking in. This past Sunday in church, however, my pastor’s message really drove it home. He spoke a message that gave me a true understanding that this desire in my heart for true love and relationship is not a human component at all but rather a desire that God Himself built into my heart so that I may seek Him. This realization has made everything so clear to me now.

It’s so clear now that humans can never fill this desire in my heart. We are sinners and fall short all the time. We disappoint each other and were simply not designed to fill this desire in our hearts. The love that we find on this earth is driven by a selfish desire from the other party, or has strings attached or an ulterior motive (we won’t admit it, but it’s clearly true). The love that we find here on earth is tainted by our humanness and by our sins. But God’s desire for us has no selfish nature to it at all. He has no NEED for us. He has perfect relationship in the Trinity.. perfect love in the Trinity. No, He doesn’t need us at all, yet He DESIRES us.

This is HUGE. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind and my heart around the enormity of being DESIRED for no other reason than true love.

Unselfish… pure… true love. Mind boggling.

Thinking about it broke me down in church and even as I write this to you now, tears fill my eyes. How could I have missed this in my 37 years of life? How could I have missed that filling this hole in my heart can never be found with ANY person or thing here on earth? I’ve spent years searching for humans to fill this hole only to be disappointed. I’ve even tried to fill it myself with further disappointment and then beating myself up because clearly there must be something wrong with me. Yet the reality is that I’ve been seeking to fill this hole with created beings and things instead of our great Creator God. It is ONLY through God that we can find true love. When we are connected to Him, He fills the void in our hearts. His love fills us and then overwhelms us to the point where love overflows to others. When we are connected with God, His light of true love shines through us.

I have to wonder how often marriages are broken up because of this very reason? Where people look to their spouse to fill this hole only to be disappointed? And how often do we place this pressure on our friendships, our family members and our church community? Ugh… what FOOLS we humans are!

Let me settle for any of you struggling. First, this hole in your heart is normal and second, you will not fill that hole with anything on this earth. It is time to look beyond earth to make you whole and to find true love.

Blessings to all of you,
Tula Rainwater

P.S. If you are interested in hearing my pastor’s sermon, here’s the link to the main sermon page http://www.mercyhill.org/index.php/media_new/ Click on “The Belief Project” and listen to the audio for “Creation and Man”.

true love

true love

true love

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