I have fond memories of dancing the night away at Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas years ago. One song that got me on the dance floor super quickly was “Looking for Love” by Johny Lee:
“I was looking for love in all the wrong places
Lookin’ for love in too many faces
Searchin’ their eyes
Lookin’ for traces of what I’m dreaming of
Hoping to find a friend and a lover
I’ll bless the day I discover another heart
Lookin’ for love”
It might be an old song now, but we can easily fall prey to the same thing today. There are many ways that we look for love. We can look for worth in worthless places. We can seek validation from social media only to come up short. We can accumulate wealth but still feel lonely. We may have prestigious careers but still feel like a lack. We may have a ton of friends but wonder whom you can really trust. We may have all the time in the world but feel we’re missing out.
Maybe some of the dissonances we’re feeling are that we’re trying to get love from someplace that was never intended to offer perfect love. Maybe it’s time to do something different.
When I was single, I came to the reality that I had to do something different. I was surrounded by people that had mostly everything I wanted in life. The pain was real. I struggled with God and questioned his ways. But at the same time, I ran to Him. I had to have a love that I could trust. One Psalm I remember memorizing during that season was Psalm 63. David, the writer of the Psalm, was hiding from his enemies in the desert and longed for someone he could trust in his loneliness. Take a look at Psalm 63:1:
“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
Yes, that’s how it felt—a dry and weary land where there is no water. Yet I made a conscious effort to find God in that dry and weary land. He graciously met me!
Lookin’ for love in too many faces
Searchin’ their eyes
Lookin’ for traces of what I’m dreaming of
Hoping to find a friend and a lover
I’ll bless the day I discover another heart
Lookin’ for love”
It might be an old song now, but we can easily fall prey to the same thing today. There are many ways that we look for love. We can look for worth in worthless places. We can seek validation from social media only to come up short. We can accumulate wealth but still feel lonely. We may have prestigious careers but still feel like a lack. We may have a ton of friends but wonder whom you can really trust. We may have all the time in the world but feel we’re missing out.
Maybe some of the dissonances we’re feeling are that we’re trying to get love from someplace that was never intended to offer perfect love. Maybe it’s time to do something different.
When I was single, I came to the reality that I had to do something different. I was surrounded by people that had mostly everything I wanted in life. The pain was real. I struggled with God and questioned his ways. But at the same time, I ran to Him. I had to have a love that I could trust. One Psalm I remember memorizing during that season was Psalm 63. David, the writer of the Psalm, was hiding from his enemies in the desert and longed for someone he could trust in his loneliness. Take a look at Psalm 63:1:
“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
Yes, that’s how it felt—a dry and weary land where there is no water. Yet I made a conscious effort to find God in that dry and weary land. He graciously met me!
Maybe you know that feeling right now. Learn to point your longings first to your Heavenly Father. Consciously seek Him with all your heart. Give God the emptiness you feel. Tell him your grief. Tell him how you really feel. He can take it.
God has blessed us in this life with so much. I think when we keep Him first in our lives, He will provide the rest.
God has blessed us in this life with so much. I think when we keep Him first in our lives, He will provide the rest.
Take a listen as we consider His love: https://www.youtube.com/
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33
Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33
Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.
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