Love - the kind, manifested inside a proper instance of a gender-pair. I’d heard about it, read stories around it and spectated something like it. Time immemorial, it has sent poets to ecstasies and writers to rhapsodies. And thinkers like me are thwarted in intellectual scrutiny. I do hope it sets off an interesting quest of heart in the future. Youth tend to “fall” (for lack of a better term) in one more often. Apprarently, ‘love’ is one of the most used, overused, and abused epithets in life. My discussion about it would at best delineate on some dimensions and not all. Because, it also requires experience, which I apparently lack.
My mind has always been inexorably drawn to the existential and philosophical matters pertaining to Truth and belief in God. I am convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was really who he claimed to be, and all contrarian worldviews are false. Such exclusivity demands solid evidence of coherence and conformity with reality. However, I shall not discuss this subject here. But surely, I will draw some understanding from the biblical worldview. In fact, Christ is the foundation of my convictions.
Psychedelic fancy
Some young people tend to make impulsive decisions based on mere feelings. This would almost surely result in what I call a ‘chocolate mousse relation’. That kind of hollow relation I see is driven by the kicking of hormones and psychedelic fancies – just a feel-good experience at the now moments. It may be easy to confuse infatuation with love.
Postmodernism - The Truth decay
The psychological issue now identified above, there lies a more dreadful problem - impinging postmodernism into young minds. The Supreme ethic, love being the attribute of God himself (God is Love) and by the virtue of humans being created in his image, moral absolutes are etched in every heart. When a man tries to be God or is blinded by cultural prejudices; Truth is eroded, the meaning is lost, definitions go corrupt, and the purpose gets violated. Much of what I see in today’s postmodern mindset. And I don’t buy into what popular media, bestseller books, dogmatic culture, and kaleidoscopic Bollywood flicks feed the mass. Cute as they may be, hollow they are on the capacity to answer life’s deepest questions.
Purity beyond genes
I do not know how to woo someone. I play elementary music, but I do not know how to serenade someone. Nor do I possess any stylistic prowess or paraphernalia to pose. I may even die the death of societal cum worldly qualifications. All of these are luxuries misplaced as pre-requisites for love. Any showmanship or criterion is best informed by Darwinian principles of drawing attention for multiplying. Darwin's automoton implications for human nature is flawed. Conquering all the inevitable mind games (that may arise post relation) and breaking through shackles of dogma, the walk of a beautiful journey from romance to everlasting love is to be human.Simple acts matter too. Explore the truth together.
Christian view of soul union
In English, one catch-all word, ‘love’ is asserted to mean what people define it to be. As far as I know, there are basically 4 loves. The Greeks realized this – Agape, Phileo, Storge, Eros. Agape, meaning God’s unconditional love. Phileo, meaning friendship love. Eros, meaning romantic love. And Storge, meaning parental or protective love. In a true communion of two souls, I see pulling together of these 4 threads into the fabric of a beautiful relation.
The book of Genesis accounts for God creating the first human, the first male named Adam. In the Garden Eden, Adam was with God. This was when sin and evil were non-existent in the world. What happens next fascinates me. God said Man was alone. Again, I find this intriguing. Why did God say so? This did not make sense because, in reality, Man was not alone – God was with him. The very presence of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence was with Man. Yet, God said Man was alone. Later he goes onto creating Eve, the first female. Ah, so he put the caliber within human counterparts, which God himself did not fulfill. There unfolds the true definition of a union between the two souls. The consummate relation, as purposefully designed by God.
Approach the one with purity and in God’s wisdom. (2 Timothy 2:22). Apostle Paul in the Bible reminds us that, "love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Love beyond mere feelings is the perpetual commitment of the will to the true good of the other person. Love with the body, the soul, the mind, and the heart. I await the divine plan for me.