Love is Blind

     Love is blind.  I suppose this is becoming more true for me today than ever before, or at least making more sense.  There was a post on Facebook just the other day from Kris Vallotton that caught my attention and stuck with me for the rest of the day.  It said, "When  someone looks at a new love, the neural circuits that are usually associated with social judgment are suppressed."  It makes sense and goes along with the old saying "Love is blind."

    I've experienced this before, actually plenty of times.  You are attracted to someone and all you see are the good things about them.  In fact, you cherish the small differences that they have.  The freckles, the odd quirks, even some of the more annoying habits they posses become adorable attributes you find attractive.  It happens all the time and I can personally attest to having experienced this first hand.     

    Actually in 2004 there was a study done by University College London that took a group of 20 mothers and showed them images of their children and other friends and loved ones and simultaneously took scans of their brain activity which showed they were unable to make critical judgments against their loved ones based on appearance or other potentially negative characteristics.

    I had read this post from Kris Vallotton Sunday morning and had been thinking about it all day while I was working at my church.  Sunday evening I went to Austin where Bethel was having a night of worship.  In the middle of worship I began meditating and thought how true this was in our relationship with God and in our views of life.

    We are invited to have a passionate relationship with God.  To love Him with everything we have and to pursue a relationship with Him at any cost.  It is no wonder why we are referred to as the "bride of Christ" throughout the bible.

    Thinking back on various times of life I can see patterns develop where I began to look at my life with a negative perspective.  I can see the times where I complained about life and where I became ungrateful with what I had already been given and had opportunity for.

    The common denominator during those times of my life was when I had allowed myself to stop loving God.  

    I have never been married but have heard plenty of advice on successful marriages.  One thing that most couples have said is that you have to work on your marriage, you have to work past the disagreements and hard times to make the relationship work and to make it last.  It's not that I necessarily stopped loving God or fell out of love with Him but more that I stopped working at the relationship.  Our relationship with God is not a two way street.  He doesn't have to work at the relationship because He already did everything He needs to or could have done for our benefit.  No, our relationship with Him is a one way street, all the work that needs to be done needs to happen on our side of the equation.

    Even in the midst of the simple issues of day to day life.  Bills are due and the paycheck wasn't enough to cover them.  A loved one becomes ill and is hospitalized.  We have frustrations at work or with a friend.  Any of the potential problems in life seem to be diminished in their severity when we are pursuing and in love with God.  Our love with Him makes us blind to the issues and obstacles of life.  It's not that we choose to ignore these issues, it's that they don't hold power of our actions, feelings, or thoughts.

    It is true, when I complain about life, when I become ungrateful, when I become stagnant, it is when I stop trying with Him, it is when I stop pursuing Him.  But when I act out my love for Him, when I make an effort in our relationship, that's when the ability to find the negative in my life, when my ability to complain seems to become nonexistent.  It is when I pursue Him that everything seems to fit just perfectly together.