Monday, April 4, 2011

You complete me............

I’ve been thinking about love a lot or maybe what I would now call romance. The idea of two people in a romantic relationship, some call this love. I guess I consider love to be the feeling that I feel for my friends and family and I’ve mistakingly called romance “love” before but hey you live and learn. Anyway, as always in my young age I think being surrounded by people that often find themselves striving for romance or making attempts to find romance in order to “settle down” or to have something “stable”, has sort of got me thinking about the idea behind these statements. An idea that I may completely be off about but non the less I’m still going to explain it here. 
I for most of my life have had big grand dreams of romance. I’m terrible about this, like really I make myself sick. Anyway its with these ideas that after some experiences of my own, I’ve sort of been given a reality check when it comes to romance or what so much of hollywood paints and even (gasp) the christian culture tells us it is.
First thing first:
No one and that bears repeating, NO ONE can fulfill you. I mean that in the most not to crush peoples dreams kind of way, but its simply true. If other people could complete us then why would we need Jesus? 
I learned this from experience and dependency on someone that was entirely unhealthy and destructive in both my life and theirs. Its still weird to me that happened but I guess in many ways it was bound to happen given my perceptions of romance. So if you think all those love songs and sappy movies are real then let me be the first to fill you in that is simply not the case. Sad I know. 
Romance is real. I think. At least it seems to be in the lives of many of my friends and family. So I’m not saying that its not real, I’m just saying that its not what we often make it out to be. In fact, I’m really starting to believe that romance is something that can only been seen in its full glory in the shadow of a God that has put together a little plan to get peeps together in the first place. God the matchmaker? Yeah thats really weird, lets move on. 
Now the main thing I need to say. We must find completion in this life, I know this as well as anyone. I truly believe that it can be found but not in people, electronics, clothes, promotions, kids, or lottery tickets. 
Completion is a God that lives with us everyday. That brings us joy through his grace. That gives us hope in our incredibly meager frames. He simply is completion. 
Let me say I’m terrible at embracing this. I literally need a reminder every day. 
Now I think that to be able to truly find romance and embrace romance the way God intended romance to be I think we have to be complete already. We can’t need someone. We can’t have to have someone. I think I just flew in the face of every major love song ever wrote. So this is why I think that learning life on our own is so important. Why I think finding Jesus on our own is a much needed thing that can give us the independence we need to be able to embrace the life that He wants so badly for us. This includes the partner or the singleness that He wants for our lives. 
So their’s my theory. Take it for what its worth. 
Recently I have been telling myself over and over, “Chris you may never meet anyone and thats ok as long as you’re doing what God wants you too”  
It’s taking sometime to take hold but I think eventually it will be built into me. 
The complete me that is. 
Thanks so much for listening if you read all this. 
Love. Peace. Hope.