Every morning at 5 am, I wake up to teach kids in China online. I love my job! I really do! It honestly amazes me the relationships you can build with kids across the world using a pre-planned 25-minute lesson. That’s not the point of this post, though.
Yesterday morning, I entered the classroom a couple minutes early as normal. The student was also already in the classroom. However, we don’t start class until the count-down timer is close to zero. Basically, we both just sit there with our cameras off and watch the timer. Sometimes I can hear the student’s background noise, sometimes I can’t.
This morning I could. He was listening to music. Though I had no idea what the words to the song were (they were in Mandarin), I could tell it was a love song. The tone, the melody, the music arrangement.
We live in two completely different cultures on opposite sides of the world. We speak different languages. We have completely different traditions. Yet, both cultures are in love with the idea of being in love.
All across the world, we, as a human race, literally worship romantic love. Movies. Books. Music. Almost any form of entertainment… it’s all saturated with this idea of romantic love.
We expect it to complete us. We expect it to make us happy.
And it’s not just part of our culture. It’s part of every culture. It’s part of our DNA.
We long for it. We sense that need for completion.
I was telling my husband about this love song from China and my thoughts pertaining to the worship of romantic love. He said, “Isn’t it funny the one thing we are all looking for and expecting out of a relationship is the one thing we were created for… To be in relationship, communion, with our Lord.”
I wish I had more to add. But that pretty much sums it up. We were created to be in relationship with God. But due to the Fall, our desires have become twisted. Sin took everything that was good and tainted it.
Adam and Eve no longer walked with God. Their work became toilsome. Their relationships became infected. Life got hard.
Everything that was once good, now became a struggle with the flesh. Work. Food. Sex. Relationships.
And we feel that. No matter where you are from. You know that something is missing, and you go looking for it in all the wrong places… substances, food, success, relationships, wealth, power…
But that something is God. There is only one thing that can fill that hole in your heart.
Since walking with Christ, I have said so many times, “I wish I had chased God the way I used to chase boys.”
When I was a teenager and in my early twenties it was like my mission. I needed a boyfriend, or at least a love interest. If I didn’t have one, I spent my weekends looking for one. It was a game. It was fun. It also consumed my life.
I was looking for something that was missing in my life. I was expecting that relationship to complete me.
Then I got married to a wonderful man. But guess what! He is not God. He did not complete me. There was still something missing.
This is probably a large part of the reason our first years of marriage were not a honeymoon. I expected him to fulfill me. I expected him to make me happy. I expected him to be my god.
When we put our faith in people, they will let us down. All people, no matter how good they are, are flawed sinful humans.
But God knew our nature. He knew we would mess up. He knew we needed someone to save us. So, He sent His Son to be the greatest love story ever told. He came down from His throne in Heaven to a world full of sin. He lived as a poor humble human. Preached the Good News of God’s Kingdom. Though He never sinned, took the punishment of death we deserve. But it doesn’t end there. He defeated the enemy. He conquered death by rising from the dead!
Why? So that we could be part of His Kingdom. So that we could have eternal life! But not just eternal life, we now can bring His Kingdom to Earth! We also now have ability to be in communion with God again- through the Holy Spirit. This is the greatest love story ever told! And it’s true.
We have to put our faith in God. This is the love story our hearts need. This is the love that will change you and fulfill you.
That sense of completion comes from a relationship with Him! When God is your number one relationship, you can take all your relationships to Him. He will guide you, lead you, and help you flourish in all areas, including earthly relationships. But He has to be that number one relationship, not just a random thought occasionally throughout your life when things get hard. He alone is the only thing that can satisfy that longing in your heart. Chasing anything else is like chasing the wind.