"The Newlyweds"

Nick and Jessica! Wow what a match made in heaven. Did any of you guys ever watch that show? Man, they made marriage look so easy. Nick, sitting at home watching T.V., eating everything in sight (that guy always had something in his mouth) and never gaining an ounce, no responsibility. Poor guy didn't even know how to mow his own yard! Jessica, between touring for her latest release and her role in the Dukes of Hazard, getting her nails done, and shopping, I don't see how she kept it all together! She had it rough! Somebody waiting on her hand and foot all the time! Man isn't this such an accurate picture of marriage and relationships—two good-looking people, hardly fussing (and when they did it took a mere kiss to make-up). REALITY TV IN ITS MOST AUTHENTIC STATE!

But something must have been boiling beneath the surface. Something obviously went awry, because, like most Hollywood relationships, it came to a pitiful end. But this one was supposed to be different! They were SOOO in love! They were a match made in heaven—looks matching looks, talent matching talent. Your modern day Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming! So why didn't they live happily ever after?

If I were to guess, most of us have had a relationship go off track at one time or another in our lives. Why? Love is so ideal isn't it? Hollywood sure has made it ideal, but if we were to base our relationships on the "scripted" relationships of Hollywood we would be in world of hurt! But we'd never do that, right? Oh . . . wait . . . uh . . .checking the pulse . . . we're in a world of hurt!

Sex In The City. Now that's a great portrayal of relationships. Non-committal sex! An all you can eat buffet. And when you get full you just ditch it all together until the next craving comes on. Sounds like such a great thing! Why is prostitution so frowned on in our society, yet these stars have been praised and elevated for their lifestyles? That is messed up! There's no difference!

We talked about relationships the other night in discipleship. I started by asking everyone what love is and the answer of the night was "the feeling that you've never felt about anyone else." Hmmm . . . I had a dog a few years ago. I never felt that way for anyone else. BECAUSE IT WAS A DOG NOT A HUMAN! The way I felt about that dog was unlike any feelings I had for anybody. Are you telling me that was love? Wow, I must be smoking the crack pipe if I LOVE my dog.

But some would say they LOVE their little puppy doggy. What love is this? Love is such a confused word and can be used I so many contexts in the English language, we don’t even know what love is. "I love lamp, I love chair, I love curtains, I love carpet." "Brick are you just looking at things around the room and saying you love them or do you really LOVE the lamp?" Haha, that part just cracks me up. Most of us fell out of our chairs with hysteria when we witnessed Ron Burgandy's encounter with "love" and his futile attempt at explaining it to the rest of the Channel Four news team (Anchorman). And the reason we laugh about it is because we know that we do the same thing too! We throw around the word "love" like it's a football in Peyton Manning's hands. I love chocolate, I love movies, I love coffee, I love shopping, I love reading, I love American Idol, I LOVE LAMP!" It's really not that funny when you think about it. We use the same term of endearment (or affection) for a $3.28 coffee as we do for a human being that we think we want to spend the rest of our lives with.

I don’t mean to give you a disillusioned and jaded view of love, because true love (as God intended it to be) can be an amazing thing! We can only understand love, though, if we begin to understand God. The Bible doesn't say that God HAS love, or God ACTS as love, or God FEELS love, it says that God IS love! Love is the very essence of God: unbiased, unconditional, unadulterated, unabridged, unfiltered (need I use any more -un's) love. I talked to someone the other day that told me he had a problem with Christianity, and one of his qualms was that you're supposed to love God MORE than you love your girlfriend or spouse. The point is, we CANNOT understand love without God! God's gift of His only son was the truest display of love that has EVER been! "Greater love has no man than to give his life for a friend." Without God, the deepest we can "feel" for our mate is the corruption of love (lust, infatuation—infatuation is not necessarily the CORRUPTION of love but it IS watered-down love. It doesn't last).

How does the Bible say we should love? Hehe. What a great discussion! It's gonna have to wait till tomorrow, though. I'm exhausted and I would just LOVE to go to sleep (case in point)!