So much of our popular culture seems obsessed with the indisputable right of a person to fall in love with another person- the holy grail of personal relationships!
If loving and being in love are different, what does a relationship with God look like if it moves to the spiritual equivalent of falling in love?
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Comments
Alucard
Posted on: 01/13/2007 03:24
Yes, the Spanish mystic John of
the Cross was in love with Christ,
a divine love he felt in his heart
and found in darkness:
The Dark Night (Of the Soul)
1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.
2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! -
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.
3. On that glad night
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.
4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.
5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.
6. Upon my flowering breast,
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.
7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.
8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.
-John of the Cross
All 4 Him
Posted on: 01/15/2007 13:51
Most of the married adults I've talked to said they married their spouses because they were in love with them. When I ask how they knew they were in love, the response is generally along the lines of, "Because he/she was the first person I'd ever dated who I couldn't imagine living life without, who I could see being in my future 10, 20, 50 years from now."
I would think that if that's an appropriate definition of being "in love", then you can fall in love with God. He's the only one I can't imagine living life without, ever. He's extremely visible in my future, whether it's a year from now or 50. I can't ever stop thinking about Him. He's a key factor...okay, THE key factor...in who I am today. I love Him more than words can say......
If that's "in love", then I'm head over heels.
sighsnootles
Posted on: 01/15/2007 15:27
sure you can.
Siksay
Posted on: 01/15/2007 16:45
My understanding is that, to really be a "Christian", you have to love God and Jesus Christ. But I'm not a Christian, and don't "love" God or Jesus in that sense, so I don't really know for sure.
fairway
Posted on: 01/17/2007 16:17
Silkay........Its OK, God loves you and when you realize how much God loves you, you can love God back. What a nice relationship
God is patient, and waits for your love.