21 July | Youth
«Love will last forever!» 13:8, NLT
Nowadays, romantic love has been overvalued in literature, the arts and the media in general. In current secularism, passion has become an obsession, a life goal. Anyone who has never been in love is as if they have not lived.
In the book The Denial of Death, author Ernest Becker notes that, nowadays, instead of people seeking God, they are running after a “romantic solution.” He writes more: “The love partner becomes the divine ideal within which to fulfill one’s life. All spiritual and moral needs now become focused on one individual. […]. In one word, the love object is God.”
Unfortunately, modern society has put romantic love in the place of God. The fantasy is cultivated that if we find our true partner, everything that is missing or wrong in us will be filled with romance. This, however, is idolatry. Love is not all we need.
Remember that the expression “romanticism” refers to Rome, “in the style of Rome.” This blasphemous and persecuting empire, described in the prophetic books of the Bible, still exercises dominance in Western culture, including in the way love and passion are developed in people's hearts. Romanticism blinds, enslaves and dethrones God from hearts.
I am not saying you should not fall in love with someone. My point here is that you should not invest all your time and resources in one human being. No matter how good a person is, they are not the definitive solution to our problems. No one in the world will fill all the gaps in your soul except your Creator. This is why the Bible states that we must love God above all things (Mark 12:30).
Understand today that true love is a divine principle, planted in the hearts of those who seek Him. I discovered this when I was dating my wife, Rosali. As we lived far from each other, we only saw each other once a month. I remember that the most memorable moments of our relationship were spent with the Bible in hand, on the benches of the Botanical Garden, in Curitiba, Brazil. There we discovered that true passion only arises when God comes first. If God is the foundation of your relationship, love will never end.