RECENT PONDERING-NESS:
Every human is CREATED with a desire to know God. Or maybe more so a "draw" to know Him. We all have a void that only God can fill and/or satisfy.
Why is it that so many (if not all) commit the highest level of pursuit, focus and achievement to finding love? Because God is Love (1 John 4:8) and we are created with a draw, longing, purpose... for and of love. This is why people are always searching for love. This is why people want to be loved. This is why people (even wicked people) want to give love, because we were created in the image of Love. {Gen 1:27+1 John 4:8=previous statement.}
Now people who have not met Jesus and thus encountered the perfect, unconditional Love of God, only know earthly love and therefore seek it as the pinnacle of life. To love and to be loved is ultimate... Although this is very true, it is not true within earthly relationships. To love God and to be loved by God is the reason we were created.. and honestly that should be flipped because we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19.) God created us to be loved by Him and to love Him. There lies our single primary purpose in life. The heart will NEVER be satisfied until it's purpose is fulfilled.
Most people not knowing God's Agape Love, seek for His void to be filled or satisfied with Eros (Romantic Love), which is SO exciting and pleasing that, when first found, can distract from that void and longing for the eternal love we were designed to know. When "Honeymoon Phase" is over, the void resurfaces driving one back to the pursuit of Love.
This is why "Game Night" with the guys and "Girls Night Out" often become more anticipated events than the Eros of a non-Christ-centered marriage. Being inevitably let down by the love that was thought to be ultimate, people who don't know Agape then move on to seek fulfillment in Phileo (Brotherly Love) and Storge (Familial Love.) Camaraderie, friendship, fame, social acceptance and gatherings.... are plenty in their opportunities to pose as "void-fillers." And they do their part in yet again distracting from the void of Love that remains unmatched and untouched because it is not understood.
No matter how captivating the Eros, the connection created there was one that God designed to strengthen the Love between a husband and wife, NOT to replace the Love of the Heavenly Father. If this Eros is not established on the firm foundation of Christ, the house will fall causing detrimental amounts of damage. This Love does answer one of the 2 primary purposes in marriage. The first purpose in marriage is to help each other (Gen 2:18) and the second , which is the one I'm referring to, is to advance the Kingdom of God by being fruitful and multiplying (Gen 1:22.) Marriage, a Kingdom purpose? Yes.. Marriage, the meaning of life? No! (Well unless you're referring to the Bride of Christ and the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.. but that's not what we're talking about here.) If Eros and marriage were the meaning of life, Paul would not have said in 1 Cor chapter 7 that it is good for man not to marry if he can control himself. With Eros not being the meaning of life or the pinnacle as so many perceive it to be, it will fail to ultimately fulfill and satisfy.
No matter how enjoyable the Phileo and/or Storge, the time will come when friends, family, comrades, colleagues... will fail you. When all other relationships are absent, what sustains him who's purpose is found inside these relationships? Although these relationships are very important for edification, encouragement, strengthening, comforting, exhorting, sharpening.. really any and all social purposes as well.. they do not answer the meaning of life or that void that screams at you when lying in bed at night, silent and solitary apart from all others.
People are searching for Love. Only the ignorant (perhaps that's too harsh of a word).. the untold or uniformed search for fulfillment in the natural relatives of who God is. God is Love. Not Eros, Phileo or Storge, God is defined in Agape. His unconditional Love which is made available to us by His Grace (proof of His love) by faith in Him. When one finds purpose in His love AND ONLY IN HIS LOVE, that.. is when you are completely satisfied and fulfilled. No matter the circumstances or what your 5 natural senses dictate you, no matter your feelings or emotions, no matter what you could gain or loose... (time for the plug of my favorite verse):
Phil 3:8-"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ."
How could Paul talk this way? I mean SERIOUSLY?!... EVERYTHING?!... GARBAGE?!.. It sounds to me like He had experienced the Agape Love of God. He found the Love His heart was searching for even though he denied it in his mind. He found the Love His heart was searching for even when he was persecuting that Love. Paul (formerly known as Saul) was WELL aware of all he had done against Jesus... and to think.. This Jesus still loved him.. still wanted to be with him.. still wanted to know him.. still wanted to use him.. still forgave him.. still pursued him.. Agape... Paul found his meaning in Agape and it changed his life.
Let the Agape Love of God be found in you today. No void.
Rom 5:8-"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
