Are You Choosing Happily Ever After?

 

 

 

“We always believe our first love is our last, and our last love is our first.”

Unknown

As a writer the palette of love provides innumerable shades of color with which to paint a story.

Despite the rainbow of choices there is a preset pattern that all romance novels follow:

Boy Meets Girl.

Boy Falls for Girl.

Boy and Girl are Torn Apart.

Boy Wins Girl Back.

But romance novels aren’t real life, right?

I disagree.

I think we are all characters in the greatest romance novel of all time - the story of God and His Beloved Creation.

God in all of His infinite wisdom fell in love with us on the day of our creation and since that day He has been wooing us into a relationship with Him.

In turn how have we treated His love?

We run away – come back – run away – come back and run away again in a strange dance of courtship that must hurt Him with each rejection letter we send.

And yet, like a truly besotted lover, He continues to woo us with His love – giving us gifts of infinite and immeasurable value.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

God gave us His greatest treasure in an act of sacrificial love so great we cannot fathom how truly devastating the loss of His son by His side – even for a brief twinkle of time – was for Him.

But, like so many heroes and heroines in the great love stories throughout history – we turn away from our Suitor choosing to chase after things of destruction and brokenness, rather than seeing the love waiting for us in our own True Beloved.

How can we change this behavior?

How do we find our ways out of the cycle of separation where we find ourselves?

We pull a Paul Harvey and read "the rest of the story".

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth.....I saw the Holy City...prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God...for the old order of things has passed away."

Revelation 21:1-4 (excerpt)

As all great romances end with:

Boy gets Girl.

Our love stories with God are no different.

He is wooing us with the knowledge that we will be completely and wholly together with Him –one day soon.

But how do we accept the love that is being offered to each of us in our own love story?

We choose to live in love rather than in loss.

We live like we read the last page of the novel.

We live with the knowledge that God is our great Beloved.

We live – learning each day – what love truly is from the Creator of love.

And we live in a life-long romance novel believing this truth...

And they lived happily ever after.

Now, that is a great way to end a story.

I guess God really is the Author of our lives.

 

 

 

Interested in trying a romance novel on for size?

 

Pick Up a Bible for You:

 

or

Pick Up: The Wooing of Jane Grey

Follow the Leader

 

 

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

John 12:26

When you were little, did you ever play, Follow the Leader?
When you play follow the leader, you have to mimic the movements and the steps of the one who is in the front of the line. Sometimes you might have to do some crazy things, but in order to stay in the game - you must follow.

Who is a leader in your life?
Is your leader a helper - a guide - a teacher?
A true leader leads by example and through influence - not through demands.
Each of us has the perfect example of a leader to emulate and to follow:
God - Our Father.
 

God wants to be our helper.

He is our true teacher.

He wants to be the guiding force in our lives.

He is our leader. 

And He will use a variety of measures to reach us.

 

With Adam, He created Eve - Man's Helpmate.

With King David He sent Nathan - a King's conscience.

With Mary - He sent an Angel to deliver the Good News of the coming Messiah.

With Isaiah - He brought the prophet to His throne room to deliver His message.

 

God wants us to listen to His voice.

He wants us to wait upon His direction.

He wants us to follow His plan.

He wants to lead - we are to follow.

 

He never intended for us to be lone rangers. He has given us a pattern to follow - true leadership that inspires. He has given us countless additional leaders to reach out to for support, guidance and accountability. And He wants each of us to offer the same kind of leadership in support, guidance and accountability to His other children.

 

He loves you.

He wants you to have a life that is abundant.

He wants you to share the love He has for you with others.

That sharing of love - living in commune with others - has always been a part of His plan.

 

We were intended to be partners with each other and followers of the one God, Our Father.

 

He is the best leader to follow.

He knows all the right moves.

 

Scriptures

Psalm 81:13-16

 

 Quote

“God created the law of free will, and God created the law of cause and effect. And he himself will not violate the law. We need to be thinking less in terms of what God did and more in terms of whether or not we are following those laws.”

Marianne Williamson