Love?

I fall in love with everyone...

With the guy who plays drums at church... the guy I hand his coffee to at work... the guy I stand next to in line... and even the guy driving in the lane next to me.

I know it's not actually love...

It's a feeling... something that I hear love is not.

It's the idea of falling in love I fall in love with.

I fall in love with love when I see these guys in real life, or in the movies. When they smile at me, or say "thank you." When they laugh real hard, or hug their mom. I fall in love with the way they wear that hat, or play with their hair. I fall in love with the way they play an instrument with such passion that it awakens something in all those that listen.

It doesn't take much for me to fall in love with love... sometimes it's an accent, or a 5 o'clock shadow. Sometimes it's a fragrance, or a close clean shave. And sometimes it's just a colorful pair of shoes. Sometimes it's even as simple as seeing a left hand with no promise attached to it.

I fall in love with the guy who reads his bible every day, and I fall in love with the guy who's never even picked it up.

I fall in love with the country boy, the city slicker, the beach bum, and the shy guy. The people person, the class clown, the home-body, and the world traveler. I fall in love with whoever will fall in love with me.

My standards... Love me!

And this is where I ask myself... is that really love? Loving someone based on the way they love me? If they love me? How they love me? Why they love me?

My answer... I do not know what love is.

I know the feelings I get, I know the emptiness I feel, and I know the neediness I have. But I do not know love as a selfless act or a daily choice regardless of the feeling involved in that moment.

Is love real?

I believe so. If God is love, love has to be real. To not believe in love is to not believe in God. Love is who God is.

So if God is love, what does it mean to be in love?

To be in love is to be in Christ.

Love cannot work, cannot exist without Christ at the core.

We can not be in love without first being in Christ.

So am I in love with these guys? No. I am in love with a feeling. I am in love with escaping reality, even if just for a moment. I am in love with a dream that God promises to make a reality when I fall in love with Him. When I live my life in Christ, and not in love.

In other words, accept that fact that to live in love is not to live in Christ, but to live in Christ is to live in love.