Everyone loves a great love story.
In October 2003, a great love story began.
A clean cut young man at the office caught the attention of my dad.
At the time, love was the last thing on my mind. I was living overseas, working on an acquisition integration team of a large corporation. My weeks were full with work, my weekends full with travel.
In October I came back to the States for a visit, to take a class for work and see family. It was during this visit that my dad decided to play matchmaker. An invitation issued and accepted, and I found myself awkwardly introducing myself to a stranger on my parents porch.
But it wasn’t awkward for long.
As the night progressed, my mind started running away from me. I mentally put my first name with his last, and thought it sounded right. Everything just clicked and I felt sure that he was feeling the same way…
Up until the time when we went to say goodbye. No request for my phone number, or email, or even a hug. All I got was a handshake and a stand-offish “nice to meet you”.
The next day, I returned to Austria, confused. Surely, I couldn’t have been THAT wrong about my feelings, or his, or how well the first date (a bind date, at my parents house), despite the unique circumstances, felt so right.
A couple of days later, he asked for my email address from my dad at work, and the rest, as they say, is history. Come to find out, he was cautious about how a relationship would work between a gal living in Europe and a guy living in South Carolina.
I’m so glad this small town guy took a risk on this girl with a touch of wanderlust.
Over the next year, we got to know each other through countless emails and phone calls first, then weekend visits. Eventually I moved from Austria to Atlanta, then ultimately back to Columbia. Nineteen months after that awkward first encounter, we were married.
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I’m so thankful for the gift of romantic love; for the gift of my husband. The love we share points us to a Perfect Love from a Perfect Pursuer.
This Perfect Pursuer chased my own heart for years. Many many years before He captured it fully. Many years I affirmed my love for Him, but it was artificial. Superficial.
But God didn’t give up. He kept pursuing.
And finally, in 2006 I surrendered to His pursuit, and fell deep into His oceans of grace.
I was His, and He was mine.
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This morning I was talking with a precious friend at church, and with tears in her eyes she shared how God was moving so much in her life. It took me back to those early days when I first fully surrendered my life to the Lord. I saw myself in her and could nearly feel how exciting and overwhelmed she was feeling.
Valentines Day is the perfect opportunity to consider God’s love.
God the Father is constantly pursuing us into a deeper love relationship with Him.
As God pursues our heart, we cannot remain indifferent. His pursuit requires a response. The response of surrender is “Yes, Lord”.
Have you entered this love relationship with the Father? Has there ever been a time in your life which you surrendered yourself fully to Him? If you are unsure, I would love to talk with you or email with you about what this means.
If you sense His loving voice beckoning you to surrender your life, DON’T WAIT!Today can be the day of salvation~ the day you enter into the greatest love story of your life!
If you already have a relationship with the Lord, how is Christ pursuing your heart today? How are you responding to His pursuit?
Something I’ve been pondering lately is that in everything ~ in the good of life, the hard, the painful, and the joyful~ in ALL things, the Divine Romancer is pursuing our heart. His ultimate goal is to captivate more and more of our heart as we love him more. Many times he uses the sweetest parts of life to beckon us to Himself. He also uses the difficult seasons to draw us closer, refine us and rid us from heart idols that rob our affection for Him.
It’s been helpful for me to ask myself this question when I have a difficult circumstance, or a trying time especially “How is the Divine Romancer pursuing me through this? How can this circumstance serve to draw me nearer to Him?”
I recently read some writing from a twenty-somthething student at Fuller Seminary. This stirred my soul~ may it stir yours today “Seeking God means letting my yearning heart meet His yearning heart. It’s a beautiful interaction between two lovers. I don’t reach out to get His attention or win His affection. I reach out to meet His loving gaze. I don’t seek Him to stir His heart, I seek Him to encounter His passion for me that’s already burning in His heart.”
If you feel stagnant in your pursuit of God, remember back to a time in your Christian walk that you had a greater passion to know Him and love Him more. Consider this question~ what are the things in life which stir my affections for HIm? Is it nature? Is it solitude in His Word? Is it writing or music? Is it spending time sharing with friends who love the Lord? Or maybe it is through serving those in need.
Ask yourself – what are the things in life which stir your affections for him? He has made each of us perfectly unique, so what stirs your affection for Him is likely different from mine. Make sure your daily schedule has margin to incorporate the things that stir your affection for the Lord.
Author AW Tozer says in “The Pursuit of God” (one of my favorite books, by the way) “To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love” Ponder that for a bit in the quiet spaces in your afternoon.
Today is Valentine’s Day, and whether or not you have a “Valentine” to share this day with, if you have faith in Christ, you have a Divine Valentine. Jesus is the lover of our soul; a Divine Romancer who pursues you with His love, grace, beauty, mercy, goodness, perfection.
Allow Him to stir your soul, and then, by His grace, actively listen to Him, overflow the truth of the Gospel, and continue to follow Him, wherever He leads.
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
