Is there a price to falling in love? You bet. I learned the hard way that some people are not safe to fall in love with. They will use and abuse your love and leave you hurting, empty and alone. I paid dearly. We hear it all the time about the steep cost of love. There are countless songs written about the risk that we run by falling in love and the devastation of love gone wrong. It's a dangerous endeavor! There are countless risks, like getting your heart broken because the person you love leaves you, deceives you, or sadly even dies. After a decade of an abusive marriage and difficult divorce I wouldn’t go near a man with a six foot pole! What - risk it again? NO thanks!
But the truth is we are designed to love. Why? We are made in God’s image. And what’s more there actually is someone whom it is completely safe to fall head over heels in love with. Someone who will never treat us badly, ignore us, use us, break our hearts or leave us. Someone who already knows everything about us, and loves every inch of us just the way we are - with our morning breath, smelly socks and loud chewing.
That’s right: God. God is the PERFECT lover of our souls. He dreamed us up and He created us to be in a LOVING relationship with Himself! The Bible says He is our true husband. And he is safe to love because He is good and faithful in everything He does. He tells us in Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved you with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” UNFAILING, EVERLASTING love. Wow. What’s more He promises in his word that he will never leave us. He promises to save us and to provide for us. There is nowhere we can go and nothing we can do to make him abandon us, despise or reject us. He doesn't lie and He never disappoints. God is the definition of love itself and as such he is someone that we can confidently give our entire heart to, fearlessly and unabashedly.
But you may be wondering - is there a price to falling in love with God? Actually there is. Because God is a jealous God - meaning that He does not want me to mess around and invest my affections on things that are dangerous to my soul. Just like a spouse longs to keep their partner safe and just like a parent works to keep their child from getting hurt, God wants to keep us pouring our hearts into the one place where it can never be broken: with Him. And only with Him. Because everything else will someday, somehow, break our hearts and bring pain. Only God will satisfy our deepest needs and longings. So there are times when God is going to say no regarding certain requests - things that we want. And there are times that He is going to steer us away from potential danger. We may not see it as danger at the time, in fact we might think it's the very thing that we need. But God knows best. And the price of loving Him is that I have to trust Him.
This lover of my soul, gentle caretaker and patient protector demands my full trust. This is called faith. This is where I choose to believe that He is who He says He is and I will let go of the things he tells me to let go of. Period. Ultimately this is a very small price to pay since it is actually for my own good. All I need to do is choose to trust him, sometimes even above my own understanding. I had already figured out that I may not be the end-all be-all most-wise person alive anyways. So trusting the all-knowing lover of my soul - while sometimes challenging to my stubborn and independent nature - isn't really that hard when I’ve experienced His love and I know what He's about.
While falling head-over-heels in love with my God does cost the price of trust, He is still by far the safest place for my heart to be. And once my heart is firmly rooted in a loving relationship with Him, it frees me up to love others too - and risk the pain that comes with it - because my faithful God will always be there to heal and restore my heart.
- Kelly Joyce