Love on a superficial level is not love. It’s attraction, infatuation, and lust; yet, for some strange reason, it is our nature to desire and attain a superficial “love” that we think will make us feel whole.
As a man, I go to the gym and wish I had that guy’s biceps and abs, and “Oh my gosh” I think to myself, “If I can get a body like that, I’ll be able to get a beautiful woman like that”
So I lift, and I diet and every time I pass a mirror, I can’t help but look into it and tell myself that I’m getting closer to accomplishing the goal that is going to set me up to get the hot one.
I train hard and tell myself that I do it because I’m trying to better myself because I want to be the best and I must find a way to attain that goal. Yeah right, I train so that I can try to meet the expectations that I feel will impress my coach, the girls, and yes, even my parents. I train so that I won’t be called a fat failure. It doesn’t stop there, to me if I train hard enough, then people will put me on a pedestal of a Greek god and fan me with palm tree leaves and worship the greatness that I am because I was able to go to a gym and perfect my body.
I want every person I walk by on the street to like me and I want to be a part of all the gangs that the cool kids put together. I want to be loved by them and all their attractive lady friends.
Isn’t that what we all want? I mean, we’ve heard it a billion times, we all want to fit in. And I could go on a tangent about so many things that people do to make themselves think and appear as if they are truly loved. But here is the truth, they’re not. People like them, they think they’re attractive and chill. But they are not loved. The whole world is not going to come running and volunteering to die for them.
Where does that superficial love really get anyone either? Not very far, maybe to Hollywood, but who the hell wants to live in Hollywood with the whackadoos. Let me cut straight to the point, instead of spending all our time trying to gain the superficial love that we think will complete our lives, maybe we should pursue a deep love, a genuine love. And maybe that desire for a deep love should play into all our decisions. Maybe, if we did that, we would spend time with each other in real fellowship, or go out and serve someone and show them the genuine love that we don’t see anymore.
I promise, love people right, and they will love you back. It will be real, and you’ll have people who you can trust and be happy with. Who needs all the material love anyway? it’s just rubbish and dies off.
Genuine, deep love. Yes, that’s what is important. Try it.
“The incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy the human heart” -Alexis de Tocqueville
Rufus Shoemaker 