My super-friend, Laura posted some thoughts about Love on her blog today. So, I figured since my day is totally swamped, I'll piggy-back off her thoughts in the form of a couple questions.
What is REAL romantic love to you? And how would you describe it to a skeptic?
The following is my answer. Feel free to post yours in the comments below.
...REAL love has a third party present...God. God is that "thing" that makes a lasting, unified relationship.
Everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin's bow,which draws ONE voice out of two separate stings.
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?--Rainer Maria Rilke, "Love Song", German poet, 1875-1926For this kind of love, it requires TWO people clinging together and inexorably reaching for the Third.
What do YOU think?
(If you're interested in my friend's thoughts, you can click here to read them).
you are helping me with my truth project...thank you. now we can just hope for some interactions from the masses :)
ReplyDeleteReal love? Endorphins are released when you are in their presence. You are more likely to be aroused while around them. You are happy that they exist, but have difficulty describing the feeling. You are excited, nervous, and exhilerated at the same.
ReplyDeleteThat is the best explanation I can make for "real love". I do not believe God has anything to do with it. If He did, atheists wouldn't be capable of love, which they most certainly are.
Well, that was a very scientific explanation of infatuation, but as a woman with 18 years of marriage under her belt, I know real love to be much, much more than "aroused…excited, nervous, and exhilarated." I know from long experience that true love rarely manifests as such.
DeleteIn my experience, true love is made manifest in acts more than feelings. True love is forged over time; the development of true love, like other blessings from God, is built on the foundation of trust, sacrifice, loyalty, and patience.
And who says you have to believe in God to be capable of love? Just because someone doesn't believe that God is love, doesn't mean He isn't. The truth doesn’t stop being true just because someone doesn’t believe it; people don’t stop being capable of love just because they don’t believe in the Source of it.
But those of us who DO believe and confess His hand in our lives and loves know that God is the source of love and the glue in all loving relationships. I know from first hand experience that it is our reaching and clinging to Him that “Draws one voice out of two separate strings.” And anyone can know and experience it too by trying it. Faith is no different from science; they both require experimentation.