I'm Gonna Love you Forever

Isn't it interesting that when one speaks about love, when one makes promises based on love, it is frequently followed by some reference to eternity?

Good ol' Clive Staples pointed that out to me in some reading that I was doing last night. The nature of love seems to be forever. Think about a love song, and you'll probably not find that the promises will be short term. Lust songs, maybe. But love songs will almost always have a reference to eternity. From Randy Travis to Jessica Simpson to Jon Bon Jovi.

Obviously Christian marriage is expected to be forever. But that's not forcing something upon us that is foreign to the very nature of love. Love IS eternal. Love IS eternal even when we don't feel IN love. Promises made while you're in love, aren't void when that feeling passes. Lewis says that "a promise must be about things that I can do, about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way. He might as well promise never to have a headache or always to feel hungry."

If you're a long-time reader, you'll know that I like making parallels between marriage and worship. Granted, it seems like there should be enough about God to keep us IN LOVE with Him throughout all of eternity. But, if we're committing ourselves to Him, when/if that feeling goes away our promise has to be more about what we'll continue to do, even if the feelings die away. Worship is not about feelings. It's not even feeling good about what you're doing.

It's about promises that we make to God, covenant that binds us even if the conditions change.

Grace

Des