Tuesday, June 7, 2010

What I’m Reading Today: Philippians 1

Do you remember the very first time you fell in love?

Chances are you do. There are certain aspects of that experience that are pretty universal. For a period of time, for instance, you forget about many aspects of the world and focus in on just that other person. The other person’s interests become your interests. You might even feel an overwhelming sense of pain when you are apart. Those are just some of the feelings that typically accompany one’s first love.

Whether you stay with your first love (or perhaps move on to a long term relationship with someone else), the feelings in a loving relationship eventually evolve to some degree.

And why is that? Why doesn’t a person remain in that initial stage of infatuation for the duration of the relationship?

A lot of the answer has to do with the nature of love itself. While love can start with lots of fireworks, as anyone in a long term relationship can tell you, eventually love evolves into a deeper, more meaningful embrace of one another. You learn to embrace not just the parts of your partner that you like but those parts that can frustrate you as well. In other words, your love for one another matures to the point that it can transcend some of the more superficial aspects of life.

Paul picks up on this theme of love (and, more specifically, mature love) when he wrote: “So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush.”

So where are you at with all of this in terms of your loving relationship with God? Wherever you are in that relationship, treat your awareness of where you are with a degree of humility as you recognize that your relationship with God will continue to grow and evolve for years to come as your relationship continues to mature.

Til next time…