Three Things

The other night I was at an engagement party at the church. The night was filled with encouraging testimonies and stories bursting with true love—unconditional and beyond measure. And I never thought that it would actually turn out to be my own “re-engagement” with the things that matter most in life. I was kind of reminded—and rather rebuked—about my perspective of and attitude towards love. I thought I already had enough of what love can be; of what it can do. I thought I already had an idea or an understanding of how beautiful love can unfold. But I realized until last night that I was left with no clue. I felt so humiliated (in a positive way) regarding my lack of proper perspective, and I felt so naïve about my experiences with love. With reasons I still keep to myself, I thought that at my age I already came full circle when it comes to relationships. Again I was wrong.

The love story that unfolded last night before my eyes is different. It is different in its capacity to love beyond the human heart. It is different in its willingness to understand. It is different in its unconditional way to forgive. It is different in its faith in the unlimited goodness and unrestricted grace of God, the author and writer of best and lasting love stories.

And since my heart is still filled and bursting with realization (and love), I want to share these three things I learned from what our pastor shared last night. It is actually taken from 1 Corinthians 13:13 where Paul talks about three important things in this life: Faith, Hope, and Love. And with so much anticipation for the God who is in the process of writing my love story, these three are my prayers and affirmations for myself:

FAITH.

I choose to live by faith, not with what I can see, hear, or feel. I choose to throw my life in the hands of the Promise-keeper, knowing deep in my heart that even though I can not see Him working now, I can expect that He is doing something amazing for me and that He will unfold it for me in His perfect time. I choose to believe in the beauty of waiting patiently for something, or someone. That even though I may get tired of waiting and may even be tempted to take a detour and a short cut, I’d willingly submit myself to hold fast to my faith and realize that everything worth having is worth waiting for. And I believe by faith that with God, it will all be worth it.

HOPE.

In this life, I choose to hope for the best. I have a God whose promises never fail, whose ways are far higher than mine, whose thoughts are far greater than all the world’s combined. I choose to hope confidently even in the midst of despair and frustration. When the time comes that my patience and strength is tested with all the mad realities of this life, I would smile at them and let the hope that springs forth abundantly from God’s throne of grace shine in the darkest night and lead the way. That may sound too cliché-ish, but you’ll never know what hope does until you hope in Someone who is unshakeable and unstoppable.

LOVE.

I choose to fill my life with love and loving people. I will not miss every single chance to love life. I will not lay waste the opportunities to show love, and be kind to, and honor other people. Someone said that one had not lived life in its fullness until he had filled every place and every space with love, and leave these places with indelible traces of love. So I choose to live. I choose to love. I choose to let love be the motivation in all that I do. I may get tired of loving people, but the Source of this love will never get tired of loving me. My supply will never run out. It will overflow in such a way that I have no choice but to share it and give it away. It will tumble like flood and leave a mark.

And when it comes to romantic love, yes, I will believe. In true love. In a love that is unconditional. In a love that is self-less. In a love story that is written by the hands of the Master Writer. So I give the pen in God’s hands, and allow Him to work on that grand and lofty masterpiece He has for me. Why do I believe in such things? Very simple. I’ve seen it unfold last night. I’ve seen it unfold in the lives of other people I know who made God the Author of their stories. And it was very, very beautiful.

Well, love has always been idealized by people and by romanticists (like myself, I admit), but only because love is too immense and too encompassing to ever be given meaning and description. Love is too great to contain. But we all have the capacity to know and feel it. Because it is real. In itself, love is a meaning. In itself, love is a reality.

In the bestselling book, “The Fault in our Stars” (and in the movie with the same title), Augustus Waters exclaimed that love is just a “shout into the void”. But I am persuaded to disagree. For me, love is not just a shout into the void—into nothingness—but rather, love is a resounding cry of celebration and an exhilarated shout trumpeting the wonders of life and existence. And spilling over and bursting forth from the deepest recesses of the human soul towards another, love is the greatest miracle, the only miracle, that has ever given this lonely world a chance at wholeness, and happiness, and joy.